Message from our executive director

When thinking about what to say in this message, there was one common thought that keeps coming back. We are clearly at a junction in time, where the need for technology adoption and availability must meet in the middle.

Rural and remote Ontario will be left behind if we are not paying close attention to what we can do to not only bridge the digital divide, but also to ensure that our citizens are able to learn new technology and use it for good.

There is much that we can do in rural communities to respond to this process of change and to take a direct hand in shaping our future. That’s what Blue Sky Net is all about. There are many communities we support under our umbrella but what exactly does it mean. In rapidly urbanizing environments, the healthiest and most quickly growing communities are not the urban cores of large metropolitan areas, but rings of smaller communities surrounding those metropolitan areas. These communities that are growing up within circles of urban economic influence are very strong and independent. They are strong because of their ability to provide quality, human-scale, and social living environments for people.

When you analyze what attracts industry to an area now, you’ll find that its decision makers are not looking to locate their enterprise in communities. They are looking to locate in regional economies with strong supply chains that can provide the labour and resources they need. And so, astute communities are banding together into well-coordinated regional networks, which can offer the resources needed by footloose industry.

So how can we continue to support these regional areas, how can we work to support remote Indigenous communities? We will band together with communities and offer help to work together so that we can attract new industry, retain our young talented minds, and grow our communities in whatever sector that may be. We can’t give you anything; we are not a funding agency. We can however lay the groundwork for you to work together and prosper. Facilitating better Broadband network builds across the North is one example. Providing information, studies and maps for agriculture, forestry, mining, or tourism economic impact is another. Providing training or business supports. It is for all of you. It is for our region.

To advance the future of Northern Ontario and protect the communities in which we live, we must learn to trust one another. We have moved from competitive behaviour, which caused many communities to focus exclusively on our own benefit regardless of what the cost might be to the adjoining communities, to collaborative behaviour based on an ability to see our future as being shared. It means trusting and sharing in an entirely new way.

That trust became a powerful enabler. Once we learn to share resources and decision-making; once we grasp the idea of a shared future; once we develop trust – we will have a foundation for resolving issues and problem solving on many different fronts.

Blue Sky Net is here to advance technology. To grasp its power as we all work toward a prosperous future. Let us know how we can help.

Susan Church

Executive Director