Wiring the Nation! Including First Nations? Aboriginal Canadians and Federal e-Government Initiatives

Abstract

Governments are turning to new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to enhance service delivery and improve citizen-state relations. E-government initiatives are focused on renewing administrative structures and processes, and on providing government information and services online. Emerging e-governance initiatives include the use of ICTs, particularly the World Wide Web, to create new patterns of engagement between policy communities and policy-makers. This essay identifies and assesses the Canadian federal government's efforts to ensure that the needs and interests of Canada's indigenous peoples are included in the wired world of government policy initiatives. The essay reveals that beyond the technological infrastructure needs of the First Nations peoples and their communities, federal policy initiatives must address and respond to the non-technical policy issues — from the cultural considerations to the privacy concerns that may be unique to the needs and interests of diverse indigenous communities in Canada — that may constrain the realization of ICTs to support Native peoples' socio-political and economic development objectives.