Partnerships essential to development of economic ventures
By Rick Garrick
THUNDER BAY—Creating partnerships and business alliances and expanding networks for economic and business growth took place during the APEX (Aboriginal Partnership Exchange) event hosted in Thunder Bay, Ontario, by Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund, on June 8.
Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario have an abundance of natural resources that create economic development opportunities in the mining, forestry, and hydro-electric power generation fields in their respective region. Additionally, the procurement of the essential goods and services by First Nations communities from larger cities such as Thunder Bay provide existing economic opportunities that contribute to the local and surrounding economy.
Fort William’s Director of Property and Lands Management, Ian Bannon, highlighted the development and best practices between First Nations and the Industry to advance the community.
“We realized that a special partnership was essential to the development of an efficient and functional structure for our economic ventures, one that not only provided engineering services, but one that provided capacity building to our members and leadership along with a structure that allowed for a profitable return to the First Nation,” said Bannon.
Bannon says the large project needs led the community to develop partnerships with True Grit Consulting Ltd., through the Joint Venture Partnership Oshki-Aki LP, and Resolute Forest Products.
“As leaders, managers and administrators of our First Nation communities, we must embrace change and plan for a more economical future for our members…as with our comprehensive community planning, which many First Nations are undergoing now, we must be able to provide opportunities for our communities to become sustainable and self-sufficient,” Bannon says.
Bannon says employment opportunities must be generated and provided to community members, as well as appropriate training and job readiness programs. He added that Fort William also signed on recently with the Land Management Act, which will allow the community to plan and develop its own land use code.
Red Rock Indian Band’s Melissa Hardy-Giles, Operator Recruitment and Training at ORIGIN, was recognized as one of four Emerging Leaders during the APEX gathering. She started up Hardy Giles Consulting with her partner Paul Giles about five-and-a-half years ago and built upon that experience to start up ORIGIN, which provides heavy equipment operator recruitment and training services using real CATERPILLAR (CAT) simulators.
“We do heavy equipment training on state-of-the-art CAT simulators,” Hardy Giles says. “We go to northern communities; my husband has taken the winter roads to try to bring this training straight to the people’s home so they don’t have to leave their communities.”
Hardy Giles says the CAT simulators provide an assessment on each trainee.
“It gives you a measurement on how much gas you burn, how much damage you’ve done to the machine,” Hardy Giles says. “It gives you exactly a report card of your qualifications.”
ORIGIN will be holding the grand opening of its new location on June 22 at 669 Beaverhall Place near the Airlane Hotel and Conference Centre in Thunder Bay.
Other presentations include, but not limited to: Bernd Christmas, CEO Gitpo Storms, spoke about The New Indigenous Economy; Pic Mobert CEO, Norman R. Jaehrling delivered on Best Practices with Resource Based Companies; and Dean Angelique EagleWoman from Bora Laskin Faculty of Law Lakehead University spoke about Indigenous Values and Economics.