On June 14, 2017, a subsidiary of APTN, First Peoples Radio Inc. (FPR), was granted licences by the CRTC to operate radio stations in Toronto and Ottawa aimed at urban Indigenous populations in those cities. The Ottawa station will broadcast on 95.7 FM and the Toronto station will use 106.5 FM. Both frequencies had previously been allocated to
Aboriginal Voices Radio which had its licences revoked in 2015. FPR had also applied for licences in Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver but the CRTC granted these to other applicants. First Peoples Radio Inc had originally announced that its two radio stations,
CFPT-FM in Toronto and
CFPO-FM in Ottawa, were to go on the air by June 2018 but later delayed its soft launch until October 24, 2018. FPR will produce and share programming with the
Missinipi Broadcasting Corporation in Saskatchewan and Native Communications Incorporated in Manitoba and is also in talks with the
Aboriginal Multi-Media Society, which has been granted radio licences in Edmonton and Calgary, and
Northern Native Broadcasting (Terrace), which operates an Indigenous radio station in
Terrace, British Columbia, and has been granted a licence to operate a radio station in
Vancouver, about potential programming partnerships. The stations first went on the air on October 24, 2018, at noon, branded as
Elmnt FM. In 2019, APTN established Dadan Sivunivut as "an arms-length, independent company with the responsibility to manage and expand the group of companies that had been established in the previous 12 years under the APTN umbrella", including First Peoples Radio. In May 2024, the CRTC rejected an application by First Peoples Radio requesting that $2 million in tangible benefits funding being paid by
Stingray Group be redirected for two years to support CFPT-FM Toronto and its Ottawa sister station CFPO-FM. FPR chairman Jean LaRose said the application was a last ditch effort to keep the stations operational due to the impact the
COVID-19 pandemic has on advertising revenue. Staff at the stations had been cut from 26 to 6 leaving no on-air personalities. As a result of the CRTC decision "we have to see just how far we can go and decide whether we have to close in the coming months if we’re not seeing growth in advertising revenue,” said LaRose. Both stations ceased operations on September 1, 2025. In February 2026, the CRTC issued a formal call for new applications to serve indigenous communities in Toronto and Ottawa with new radio stations. ==References==