Potential for economic power from First Nations a shared vision at Anishnawbe Business Professional Association’s inaugural virtual panel

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY — Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa called for more Indigenous business opportunities during the Anishnawbe Business Professional Association’s (ABPA) 1st Annual General Meeting and Lessons Learned and Looking Forward virtual panel on Sept. 24.

“What you have started here is something we can gain momentum on,” Mamakwa says. “What if we had an airline in the communities that is owned by the First Nations? What if we had a pharmacy that was owned by the First Nations? What if we had a construction company that was owned by our people? What if we had stores? Just imagine how powerful we would be — it would be the industry, it would be the government coming to us saying to us, ‘We want to work with you.’”

Jason Rasevych, president of ABPA, says he was “thrilled” with the turnout at the AGM and virtual panel.

“We were very appreciative of Sol Mamakwa for making the opening statement and impressed with the amount of engagement on the panel related to participant questions and related to the interest of everybody that attended,” Rasevych says. “Jason Thompson did a great job of moderating the discussion, posing challenging questions, and also facilitating some of the comments from the audience. It was a magical afternoon for our first AGM and we’re looking forward to many to come.”

Thompson, owner of Superior Strategies and Red Rock Indian Band citizen, was encouraged by Mamakwa’s comments on Indigenous business opportunities.

“A couple of things I pulled away from Sol’s message was around cohesiveness, trust and the potential for economic power from our First Nations,” Thompson says. “I see that same vision, I see the same opportunities and I’m quite happy that I think we are moving in the right direction and I am very excited.”

Robert Starr, business project manager, Supercom Industries LP, and Biigtigong Nishnaabeg citizen, began the panel discussion by noting that Supercom is a unique partnership of six First Nations that represents their business interests in the East-West Tie power transmission line project.

“I get to work with companies such as Valard [Construction] on implementing the vision of obtaining economic opportunities for our people through employment and training and primarily for myself through procurement,” Starr says. “I started with Supercom on the employment and training side and carried over into business development last year.”

Rachael Paquette, lawyer and partner, Cheadles LLP, delivered a presentation on the legal perspective on joint venture agreements including some of the pitfalls and benefits.

“In the past, Canadian courts frequently characterized joint ventures as partnerships, but now recognize the existence of joint ventures as relationships other than partnerships,” Paquette says. “Throughout the presentation, keep in mind that a joint venture is an association of two or more parties for a limited purpose without the participants becoming partners, also any combination of resources by two or more parties in order to conduct a commercial venture jointly under agreed-upon rules.”

John Glover, CEO, Minodahmun Development LP, spoke about how Minodahmun, a partnership between Aroland, Ginoogaming and Animbiigoo Zaagi’igan Anishinaabek, was born from their impact benefit agreement negotiations for the Greenstone Gold Mines project.

“Our goal is to ensure, like Jason said, that benefits from development projects, particularly mining, are shared equitably with the three First Nations and to advance business opportunities, employment and training related to major projects,” Glover says. “We’re really aiming to create own-source revenue for the three First Nation owners and reduce reliance on government funding.”

The ABPA’s new board was elected during the AGM with Rasevych as president, Paquette and Ron Marano as vice-presidents, Thompson as secretary/treasurer and Brian Davey, Steven McCoy and Tony Marinaro as directors.