NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Sahtu Settlement Area, North Slave Region, South Slave Region

Tags: Internet services, Broadband, Digital Equity, Digital Inclusion

Objective(s): To address the current digital gap and the profound negative consequences for the Indigenous families in these NWT communities.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No. 5843. Telecommunications services in remote communities of northern Canada are usually more expensive, slower, less available, less reliable, and of lower quality regarding service compared to their southern and urban counterparts. The global pandemic has further highlighted the digital divide and broadband service disparities between the north and south. Thus, the Native Women’s Association of the NWT (NWANWT) proposes a pilot project to connect eight-five (85) Indigenous families/households in the 4 most remote Northwest Territories (NWT) communities. Utilizing the newly available Starlink Low Earth Orbit (LEO) high-speed internet system, NWANWT aims to address the current digital gap and the profound negative consequences for the Indigenous families in these NWT communities. The eighty-five (85) Indigenous families/households selected to receive free Starlink Internet services by the NWANWT would otherwise have very limited access to adequate, affordable connectivity, due to a lack of Internet options or of financial resources/disposable family income. As just one example of current community needs, many researchers have labeled domestic violence and intimate partner violence as the “shadow pandemic” due to the isolation caused from lockdowns to control the spread of COVID. The NWT also has the second highest rate of sexual violence in the country and in 2020, they estimated there were more than 4,117 incidents. The NWANWT believes that combating the isolation many of these women and girls experience by improving digital connectivity is part of the solution. This project has been developed with the NWANWT and the Smart Communities Society of the NWT (SCSNWT, a registered NWT non-profit organization). The Native Women’s Association of the NWT will create a governing steering committee for the project that will include Northern Indigenous persons from the participating partners (NWANWT, SCSNWT and the University of Alberta). The NWANWT will partner with the University of Alberta to conduct research on this connectivity initiative. UAlberta will be engaged in research, monitoring and evaluation of Internet connectivity in this context. Building on the participatory, community-engaged research design established through the DigitalNWT project (2019-2022), the UAlberta research team will conduct a longitudinal (2023-2026) study of technology access, adoption and use of connectivity by participating households. The researchers hope to also engage households that are not participating in this initiative (e.g., that do not receive free Starlink access) as a ‘control group’. We hope to involve up to 170 households (85 Starlink; 85 control group) in the research. The team will adapt a mixed-method approach to data collection, including household surveys, semi-structured interviews with participants, and Internet performance testing. This research design and methodology has been developed and refined over the past three years through the DigitalNWT project. All participants will be provided with the Information letter and consent form, which will be emailed to or shared with them, included in the survey, or given in person. The project research activities will be conducted in the following 4 small remote Northwest Territories (NWT) communities: 1) Colville Lake (~20 households: 10 Starlink + 10 control group) 2) Lutselk’e (~78 households: 39 Starlink + 39 control group) 3) Paulatuk (~50 households: 25 Starlink + 25 control group) 4) Wekweèti` (~22 households: 11 Starlink + 11 control group) Project locations may expand in future years (to be confirmed with Amendment). We will continue to adjust and refine our interview protocol and survey questions based on continuous improvement, to respond to feedback from NWT partners and respondents, and to reflect the needs of communities in the North (to be confirmed with Amendment). Following the mixed-method research design, we will employ both qualitative and quantitative data collection tools. More specifically, data will be collected from participants in the following ways: 1) Household Surveys: Survey data will be collected through Open Data Kit (ODK)(Enterprise Account managed by UAlberta), via paper or online surveys, phone surveys, or conducted in-person. For households connected to the Starlink system, we intend to conduct surveys either online (via Google Forms) or through telephone or videoconference. We may use in-person or telephone methods and mobile or online tools (e.g., ODK, Google Forms) to conduct surveys with households who are not connected to the Starlink system funded by NWANWT (as a 'control group'). 2) Semi-structured interviews conducted by phone, video (e.g. Zoom), or in person: Interviews will be conducted by phone, an encrypted videoconference application (Zoom), and/or in-person (in the NWT communities during community visits). Interview participants may receive honoraria for their time -- however any decisions and funds regarding honoraria for interviews will be managed by the funding partner (Native Women's Association of the NWT) not the research team at UAlberta. 3) Internet performance testing via software/website: the research team will use a software/tool that collects data on home internet performance (i.e., download and upload speed). This software/tool will be pre-loaded on desktop computers provided free of charge to participants. Participants will be provided information about the Internet performance test and the project activities, and they will provide informed consent to participate. The research team will also prepare media (e.g. video/audio) about the data collection and analysis procedure, to ensure that it is well understood and trusted by participants. Participation is voluntary and participants have the option to end data collection at any time. No personal information will be collected by this software/tool (e.g. websites visited, media downloaded, etc) - we are only collecting data about Internet performance. It is anticipated that the research may provide benefits to NWT participants and government (local, territorial and federal) in delivering future online/Internet-based programs, services and benefits. It may also help identify (and in doing so, mitigate) the increased risks that may arise through increased Internet access in these communities (e.g., inappropriate content, misinformation, 'scams' and so on). The research may benefit consumers by evaluating the impacts of Internet access and affordability in rural/remote NWT communities. This research can inform ongoing community discussions, digital policy and regulation regarding emerging digital content and connectivity in the Northwest Territories. This project also provides an opportunity to learn from NWT community members about digital connectivity in the far North. It also supports the development of future research projects. The researchers will work with NWANWT and project steering committee, along with local leadership, champions and other contacts, to recruit families/households in participating communities. Steering committee members will help identify project participants, such as participating households, local researchers and key informants for interviews/focus groups. We will be collaborating and engaging with the local communities on a regular basis, and will provide project updates directly to participants through emails and reports, online meetings/sharing circles organized by NWANWT, through media, and other activities. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from: February 3 - December 31, 2024