Fibre optic cable comes to West Coast First Nations

Geography and technology have long isolated the handful of small Indigenous communities strung along the Pacific Rim Highway from Port Alberni to Tofino .

This week community leaders celebrated the completion of a new fibre optic cable network that will bring high-speed internet to their villages, and they hope, improved healthcare and growth.

"We want to bring people home," Chief Anne Mack of the Toquaht First Nation said this week as a celebration in Tofino marked the completion of the line. 

"They would not ever be without internet, the youth from the urban areas."

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The work to connect seven Nuu-chah-nulth villages along Highway 4 is part of the Pathways To Technology project, managed by the All Nations Trust Company.

It's purpose is to ensure that all 203 First Nations communities in B.C. have high-speed internet.

The west coast of Vancouver Island installation was a $12-million effort, in partnership with Telus, BC Hydro and the B.C. government which also brought fibre optic cable to the towns of Tofino and Ucluelet.

The tiny village of Macoah, about 14 kilometres from Ucluelet, is the first to get phone and high-speed internet connection to its dozen homes. 

Before the fibre optic line arrived, internet came via satellite.

It would often fail during a storm.

Now, the community will be able to market the lumber and kelp produced there.

The government building will also be relocated to the village, eventually, from its current location in Ucluelet.

The final connection to high-speed internet in the other Nuu-chah-nulth villages along Highway 4 is expected in October.

'We don't even have cell phone coverage'

In a video produced by the Pathways to Technology project, community leaders in each village described their particular challenges. 

"We don't even have cell phone coverage," Esowista Councillor Terry Dorward said.

At the Ucluelet First Nation's luxurious Wya Bay Resort, the "third-world Wi-Fi" quality has been the biggest complaint from guests.

Tsunami alerts are also a concern.

In Ahousaht, Curtis Dick said the unreliable connection could delay a crucial tsunami alert to the vulnerable community by crucial minutes.

British Columbia's Minister of Technology, Amrik Virk, was in Tofino for the celebration Sept. 22.

"It brings economic opportunities, health-outcome opportunities, education opportunities," Virk said.

"I think it's part of many of those ingredients of reconciliation."

Chief Mack says she hopes the connection will go deeper than data. "The language and the culture, that's something that can be brought closer to our citizens wherever they are," she said.

With files from Ash Kelly.