It looks innocuous, doesn’t it? and it sounds kinda … classy … Centre for the North. Even the body that’s pulling it together has a neutral sound to it: Conference Board of Canada.

But being a money coach in my past life, I’m always interested in following the money (and those of you who have watched the Best.Series.Ever, The Wire, will have had that emblazoned on your brain too). And when I followed the money on this, here’s what I found at the end of the document:

Funding of the Centre
This Centre will be funded by a variety of organizations from the private and public sectors. We are asking each investor to commit for a five-year period.

There are three levels of investment:

Champion investor ($100,000 annually)

Champion investors will be deeply involved with Conference Board staff in the drawing up of the Centre’s research plan and meeting agendas. These investors will be part of the Centre’s Steering Committee and will play a leadership role in Centre meetings.

Lead investor ($50,000 annually)
Lead investors will help the Conference Board and Champion investors develop the research plan and review the research in progress. They will also suggest meeting topics and be invited to participate in Centre meetings.

Participant investor ($25,000 annually)
Participant investors will be invited to attend Centre meetings and will have access to the detailed research findings. They will also provide input on the choice of research and meeting topics.

So. People willing to cough up between $25K = $100K every year get to

• set the agenda
• choose which questions get asked and which don’t
• and have access to the research findings.

Anyone else find it hard to believe that the Conference Board of Canada will live up to their stated commitment of being:

• “The foremost independent, not-for-profit, applied research organization in Canada.”
• “Objective and non-partisan. We do not lobby for specific interests.”

I call bullshit. But I’m guessing the final document and research findings will be presented with little mention of who actually drove the whole project.

I dunno. I guess I thought we voted in MLAs every few years to, you know, set the agenda and direction for the north. Clearly I am mistaken.

I’m sure by now everyone who reads this is aware of the upgrade Northwestel has just done to their Internet Packages. I know I was excited even though I am unable to use it where I currently am. They are now offering faster speeds and high bandwidth caps the same as their old packages, which for a heavy user such as myself wonderful news. No longer will I need to continuously check my usage, always in fear of going over.

So that brings us to today and to the article in the Yellowknifer about how SSi considers what NWTel is doing unfair towards them. You see NWTel owns all the cable transporting Internet in to the Northwest Territories and so what SSi does is purchases bandwidth (Internet) as a wholesaler. Now you would think if your are purchasing it in bulk they would be getting the better deal or a more discounted price so that they can afford to resell it to the public. Well that does not seem to be the case SSi says. They believe they are paying 5 times more than what NWTel is offering their Internet Packages for to the public and small businesses. NWTel stated in their advertisements that the rates for small businesses will be going down by 40% and also says that over the last year they lowered wholesaler rates by 35%.

Now personally I have always used NWTel because of a couple reasons. One being it is easy to bundle with cable and second being they offer higher limits and faster speeds. The one thing I do like about SSi though is that portability of their modems. I would also like to point out that the average user does not need more than what SSi offers therefore still making it a semi level playing field. A suggestion would be if you can not match NWTel’s prices would be to focus strongly on something like customer service.

Now as everyone who reads this most likely uses one or the other I would love to get your take on the matter and which provider you use. I can see pros and cons with both and that is the case with most things, how do they affect you?

This coming Friday evening is the Red Carpet Screening for the Youth Photovoice Project. The showing, which will be held at the capital theater, starts at 5:30pm and goes until 6:30 and is free to the public. You can find out more about what the Youth Photovoice Project is HERE.

The Project was done by local youth who put a lot of work into it over the last couple of week. Please consider going to show your support. You know what they say “A Picture is worth a Thousand Words”.

You can view the PDF Poster HERE

Where: Capital Theatre

When: Friday, August 7, 2009 5:30-6:30