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High speed internet connects Gitanyow and Stewart in Connected Coast project

The Gitanyow Band Chiefs and Executive Director Joel Starlund along with Stikine MLA Nathan Cullen pose for a photo in front of two looming totem poles on Gitanyow Territory.
High Speed internet is coming to Gitanyow territory and Stewart BC, two very remote places along northern British Columbia. Photo courtesy of Nathan Cullen's office.
Pamela Haasen - CICK - Smithers • BC | 30-03-2023
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Since 2017, the provincial government has allocated over $500 million into expanding connectivity to underserved rural and Indigenous communities in B.C. Now, the province is investing as much as $3 million toward a project to bring reliable, high-speed internet access to more than 500 households in the rural, remote and Indigenous communities of Gitanyow and Stewart in northwestern B.C.

So far, the Connected Coast program has funded 184 approved projects benefitting more than than 72,430 households in the province.

"It's exciting to see communities stepping up and taking on these kinds of projects", Minister Cullen told CICK News in an interview this week. "It builds a lot more strength within the north and it also provides better internet for everybody in the north because it's another loop in the system in case another beaver decides to take out an internet pole."

Cullen is referring to last spring when a beaver chewed through enough cable to knock out internet and cell service for a full 24 to 72 hours in every household and business in the entire Skeena Region of northern BC.

If you want to see the communities connected by the high voltage AC submarine cable system that Cullen mentioned in his interview, you can view a map online. There are lines from Lax Kw’alaams to Bella Coola to Haida Gwaii.

A Gitanyow-owned company called the Meziadin Junction Partnership Ltd owns 51 per cent of the project connecting Gitanyow territory (an area of approximately 6,000 square kilometers) and Stewart BC, a small town on the border of BC and Hyder, Alaska. The Algyax Anuuhlx (Talking Drums) project will be built and operated by Meziadin Junction Limited Partnership, a company owned by Gitanyow First Nation along with a Terrace BC company to manage the technical side of the installation and upkeep of the fibre cables delivering high speed internet to each household in Gitanyow territory.

"The expected due date for connectivity is December of this year, but it could be sooner. Connecting all residents in Gitanyow is important not only for work, but also to continue education and language learning for people who have left the territory," Joel Starlund, Gitanyow Band Office executive director, said.

To see a complete list of all approved and announced projects supported by the Connecting British Columbia program, head to Northern Development Initiative Trust's website.

Listen to both of those interviews in the link below.

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