Chief Jimmy Rae is the elected leader of North Spirit Lake, which is located about 175 km northeast of Red Lake. It has a population of 390 on-reserve members and Oji-Cree is the community language.

Chatting is the most popular use of ICTs in North Spirit Lake. "Between chatting and the web pages, the biggest impact has been that people are able to communicate with people from outside the community," said Arnold Thompson, multi-media producer.

Telehealth has also been a big impact, Thompson noted. Many people are able to stay in the
community instead of going out for treatment.

North Spirit Lake is connected to a T1 service from the Bell Canada digital microwave radio network. They operate their local cable system to connect all their offices and homes to broadband services.

Visit our Community Portal: http://nsl.firstnation.ca