Bearspaw First Nation has made its first major acquisition since establishing the Ozija Thiha Legacy Trust.

Yesterday, the deal closed to purchase Edmonton-based Clearwave Broadband Networks, a high-speed internet provider in the Alberta capital region.

It marks a major step toward expanding Bearspaw’s economic development portfolio and capitalizes on the experience gained successfully by building and managing Morley-based Stoney Nakoda Telcom (SNT). Established in 2015, SNT now has a network throughout Morley and Eden Valley and provides more than 95 per cent of Nation residents with access to high-speed internet. It has five full-time, on-reserve employees.

Bearspaw CEO Rob Shotclose says it was a natural fit.

"It's a good next step," he says. "You pursue what you're involved in, so we've decided that we've almost grown our on-reserve customer base as much as we can. It's probably not going to grow substantially until we find opportunities off-reserve, and one of those was an opportunity to buy a successful company."

"The owner has developed it from the ground up, and he's ready to move on, so it was a good opportunity to get a company that has been making revenue and doing a good job."

Clearwave Broadband logo

Shotclose says Clearwave will continue to be Edmonton-based.

"We're going to continue to have the office there, and the majority of the staff will stay on and they'll continue to operate as they have been. They have been successful, and we'll try to grow it as well."

Sergei Lutzak founded Clearwave in 2002 and will assist in transitioning the operations to the new ownership group and leadership team.