Public Notice

January 31, 2024 – Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada must determine whether the proposed project is likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects.

To help inform this determination, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada is inviting comments from the public respecting that determination. All comments received will be considered public and may be posted online.

Written comments must be submitted by March 02, 2024 to contact identified on the project page.

The Proposed Project

New (Multiple) Tower Construction

Southeast Resource Development Council Corp. is proposing the construction of 4 telecommunication towers to provide high-speed internet access to the communities of Bloodvein First Nation and Berens River First Nation . The towers will be between 10 to 36.5 meters tall. Antennas will be mounted at the top of these towers. These antennas will operate in the 5 and 60 GHz frequency bands. All of the equipment necessary to operate this facility will be housed in a small equipment cabinet located on site. These towers may undergo future modifications or the addition/replacement of antennas.

Upgrade (Multiple) Tower

Southeast Resource Development Council Corp. is proposing to the addition of 0.152m and  0.333m antennas, in the 5 and 60 GHz frequency bands, mounted at the top of an existing 36.5m towers which is located on Bloodvein and Berens River First Nations. The antennas will be installed to improve network access to high-speed internet. In the future, the existing tower may have other antennas and other radiocommunication equipment added or replaced.

New Fibre Installation

Southeast Resource Development Council Corp. plans to install underground fiber optic cabling, for Internet purposes, to all residential homes in the communities of Bloodvein and Berens River First Nations. The project involves the installation of approximately 176 km of underground and aerial fiber optic cable from the Manitoba Hydro Vault near Hollow Water along Provincial Highway 304 to the Broadband Communications North Central Office in Hollow Water and from the intersection of Provincial Road 304 and Rice River Road all the way through Bloodvein First Nation and continues into the Berens River First Nation.

The cable will be buried by directional drilling, trenching, or using existing conduits, or a combination of these methods in existing roadway alignments, but will be suspended on support structures to connect to residential homes and businesses.