PAGC Chiefs Hoping to Save Two-Way Radio Service

PAGC Chiefs Hoping to Save Two-Way Radio Service

Wednesday, November 16, 2005 at 13:23

The Prince Albert Grand Council is throwing its support behind a campaign to save the northern two-way radio service.

SaskTel has applied to the CRTC to have the service discontinued early in the New Year, including the closure of the station in La Ronge that allows users to be patched into the regular phone network.

The utility believes the system could collapse at any time and there would be no way to repair it.

It wants the roughly 100 two-way radio operators in the North — mainly traditional land users — to make the switch to satellite phones.

But Lac La Ronge Indian Band chief Tammy Cook-Searson says that’s unacceptable, because of the extra cost and the inconvenient charging needs of sat phones.

She also says the old system is still very much needed by trappers, fishers and others — and notes she still uses a two-way radio herself.

Cook-Searson and the rest of the PAGC chiefs have begun a letter-writing campaign to the CRTC, hoping it will deny SaskTel’s request.