by Onakeio Systems · 100% Indigenous-owned
Asset management for Indigenous communities, with ISC reporting built in for First Nations
Askwa keeps the register of a Nation's assets and capital projects, with the documents it comes from. It tracks the reports the Nation owes Indigenous Services Canada (ISC), with their deadlines.
Every three years, a Nation receives an E-ACRS (Extended Asset Condition Reporting System) report. In between come inspection reports, the FNIIP (First Nations Infrastructure Investment Plan) workbook and many letters from ISC. Askwa keeps these documents together with the list of assets they describe, so the information is easier to find, to check and to use.
The register lists housing, buildings, water and wastewater systems, roads, bridges and vehicles. For each asset it shows ISC's asset code, the inspector's condition rating and remaining life, the open needs (the repairs and replacements an inspector has recorded) and the replacement cost. Each value shows where it came from.
This screen shows condition and risk together, with a 35-year renewal estimate based on the register's remaining lives and replacement costs. The inspector's asset replacement value (ARV) chart remains the reference. Assets in poor condition with no project are flagged so the community can discuss them.
Askwa tracks the dates of the FNIIP, the Capital Projects Reports (data collection instrument DCI 460671), the next E-ACRS and the Annual Performance Inspections, each with the person responsible.
Each capital project with its FNIIP stream, its estimated cost, what was requested for each fiscal year, what was approved, and the reports it owes.
E-ACRS reports, FNIIP workbooks and inspection reports kept as received, encrypted with the Nation's own key, and viewed in the browser. Only the Nation puts documents in.
Any number of viewers, a few managers, and a director who decides who does what. Every sign-in and every change is recorded.
The register, the needs and the projects in open formats, any time, at no cost. Managers export; viewers read.
The register of your infrastructure and capital projects, and your ISC reporting: E-ACRS results, the FNIIP workbook, DCI 460671 and the deadlines.
The register of your assets (housing, buildings, water and wastewater systems, roads, vehicles), their condition, your capital plans, documents and deadlines. Reports to your own funders on request: tell us which ones you file.
Askwa is designed to respect the First Nations principles of OCAP®: ownership, control, access and possession.
Everyone invited starts as a viewer. A director of the Nation, or of the organization that supports it, then gives the manager and director roles. There is no limit on viewers. Managers are kept few, so that only the people answerable for the register can change it.
E-ACRS inspections are done by licensed engineers and architects, on ISC's own workbooks. Askwa keeps their work as they delivered it; it does not replace it.
Askwa is offered through the organizations that already support Nations with their infrastructure, and directly to Nations that manage their own.
Askwa is developed and operated by Onakeio Systems Inc., an Indigenous-owned Canadian company based in Kanesatake, Quebec, certified by the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business (CCIB).
Onakeio is an information technology and operational technology consulting firm. We work on the systems that community infrastructure depends on. Askwa is built for every Indigenous community, whatever its territory, language or size. We develop it with the communities and technical organizations that use it, and what they ask for guides what we build next.
Each Nation's data is its own: a Nation can take a complete copy in open formats at any time, at no cost. If Onakeio ever ceased to offer Askwa, it would release the application's source code to the Nations using it.
Askwa, asset and capital management system for Indigenous communities, with ISC reporting built in for First Nations, is offered to communities directly and through the tribal councils and technical services organizations that support them in Canada. It keeps the register of a Nation's infrastructure (housing, buildings, water and wastewater systems, roads, bridges, vehicles) and of the capital projects funded by Indigenous Services Canada (ISC).
Yes. It keeps the results of each E-ACRS inspection with ISC's asset codes and condition ratings, the needs with their ISC codes, the FNIIP projects and funding requests, and the Capital Projects Reports (DCI 460671) each project owes.
No. Askwa works from the Nation's own copies of its documents: the E-ACRS reports and lists, the FNIIP workbook, the inspection reports. Askwa does not read anything from ISC's systems and does not send anything to them.
The Nation. Askwa is designed to respect the OCAP® principles, and each Nation sees only its own data. Onakeio commits to giving a Nation a full export of its data at any time, at no cost.
By yearly subscription per Nation, usually through a tribal council or a technical services organization, with a one-time set-up of the register from the Nation's documents. Prices are given on request. ISC's Asset Management Program lists software tools among the costs it can fund; ISC decides eligibility proposal by proposal.
Documents are kept exactly as received, encrypted with each Nation's own key. Sign-in requires a password and a code from an authenticator app. Every sign-in and every change is recorded by the database itself. Askwa is built to SOC 2 criteria, with an audit planned. The data a Nation keeps in Askwa is never used to train a machine learning model.
The Nation's own people, in the roles its director gives them, and the organization that supports it, if there is one. Onakeio sees a Nation's data only with support access that the director gives, for at most 30 days, and every access is logged. Nobody else.
Not yet. Today a person enters the register from the documents, and Askwa checks each need against ISC's coding rules. We are preparing to read E-ACRS reports and FNIIP workbooks with machine learning, under four rules: (1) a value enters the register on its own only when every check passes; (2) a person reviews every value that Askwa cannot settle; (3) every value shows how it got there; and (4) a model never writes a number in a filing to ISC.
No. Askwa runs as one service, hosted in Canada, in a Canadian data centre, so that every Nation has the same security, the same updates and the same backups. Onakeio commits to keeping the data in the Nation's possession: the Nation will be able to export all of it at any time, at no cost, and to receive a copy on the schedule it chooses, in storage it controls. That copy will open without Askwa.
Yes. Every screen is in English and in French, and each person chooses their language at the first sign-in.
We are introducing Askwa to technical services organizations and tribal councils in Quebec, and we want to learn from you. With a Nation's agreement, bring one of its recent E-ACRS reports or its FNIIP workbook to the call; we will show you on screen what Askwa does with it. About 45 minutes by video call, in English or French, with no commitment. We are also preparing a demonstration with demo data that you can explore on your own. Request a demonstration and we will tell you when it is ready.
Request a demonstrationThe form takes a minute and reaches a person at Onakeio, who writes back within two working days. By email: askwa@onakeio.ca.
