Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take a moment to signal and celebrate the accomplishments of one of my Range Lake constituents and whose business is also located in the riding. I’m referring to none other than Mr. Jeffrey Philipp, founder and CEO of SSI Group of Companies.
Some of you have already seen the December issue of Up Here magazine. The cover and main story featured Jeff, who, as the North’s rebel tech geek, has been named the 2011 Entrepreneur of the Year. This is an accomplishment that is well deserved and that I believe deserves recognition by the Legislative Assembly here today.
SSI’s origins are in Jeff’s hometown of Fort Providence, where he spent most of his life, where in 1965 his parents opened the Snowshoe Inn. For some 25 years now, Jeff and his wife, Stefanie, have been the second-generation owners of Snowshoe, which has continued to grow and branched into various operations, along the way generating new investment, creating jobs and delivering opportunities for the considerable number of Northerners.
SSI was founded in 1990, providing computer software and training for Fort Providence. Five years later they became an Internet service provider, and in the following decade deployed voice data and Internet systems in Canada but also in Africa, South Pacific and South Asia, including Indonesia, immediately after the 2004 tsunami. Then things started to become really interesting.
In 2004 SSI became the first company to build its own network to compete with NorthwesTel when they launched a high-speed wireless service in Yellowknife. From 2005 the build-out continued with QINIQ and Airware networks that now provide affordable broadband across Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. These networks have improved the lives of residents by providing access to services that did not exist before, including on-line banking, education and health services via broadband. Some $30 million of investment later, SSI has deployed in even the smallest of northern settlements. The goal is commendable; and that is to give all Northerners equal access to quality communication services regardless of where they live.
Despite certain CRTC restrictions early this year, SSI launched the QINIQ “ChatBox” service to all satellite service communities in Nunavut. With this, consumers have an inexpensive alternative for long distance calling and for placing calls to and from each other. SSI is also putting the finishing touches on Northern Space Link, a space teleport in Ottawa that delivers quality and robust communication services to the North and provides a valuable source of diversity. What is perhaps a lesson for us in the NWT is knowing a key beneficiary of SSI’s latest investments…
Mr. Speaker, I seek, at this time, unanimous consent to conclude my statement.
---Unanimous consent granted
…is a new network built for communications of the Government of Nunavut that is providing increased efficiency while at the same time showing significant cost savings over older legacy systems.
Going forward, SSI already has a new investment worth tens of millions of dollars underway, working on the principle that benefits of innovation and competition should not be denied in the North, and where these investments will allow improvement to current services and introduce innovative new technologies to the North.
Members of the Assembly, thank you, and please join me in congratulating Mr. Philipp, the North’s Entrepreneur of the Year.
At this time, I would like to say seasons greetings and healthy holidays to all the residents of Range Lake and to all residents throughout the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
