Indigenous business summit promotes inclusion
- EFN Staff | November 22, 2016
The focus of the 4th Annual Indigenous Economic Partnership Summit was on Entrepreneurship and Indigenous Human Resource policy. The iSummit for short was held in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan on October 13.
Keynote speaker, Clint Davis, Indigenous Business Advisor for Acasta Capital spoke on Indigenous business, the opportunity and how to seize it. “Aboriginal people are increasingly leaving their economic footprint on the national picture. Combined income of Aboriginal households, businesses and government sectors was $24 billion in 2011.”
While Clint was with TD Banking Group, he studied the Indigenous economic market. He noted that Indigenous businesses grew by 5.7% in 2015, as compared to 1.1% overall Canadian business growth. This was accomplished by tapping into different business models and growing Economic Development corporations.
His thoughts for the future of Indigenous business were to advocate to all levels of Government to develop Indigenous procurement policies, and to build scale through collaboration. He also pointed out that the media story is that Indigenous people are looking for handouts, when the story should be about Indigenous contributions to the economy.
The guests were then given an update from the Border Tribal Council on the new Casino project in Lloydminster, which is now approved and moving forward. The Border Tribal Council will own the land and buildings and SIGA will run the casino. The first business on site will be a PetroCanada gas station and the goal is to have a majority Indigenous staff.
Related: Lloydminster casino project receives official approval
While the Tribal Council experienced some time setbacks due to the fact Indigenous businesses often must deal with more red tape, they have found the City of Lloydminster to be a cooperative business partner in building the first urban Reserve in Lloydminster.
The panel on “Starting Your Own Business” then took to the stage. The panel was moderated by Jeff Ross, Economic Development for Onion Lake First Nation. He was joined by Heather Abbey, social entrepreneur and founder of shopindig.ca, Rob Campre, former pro football player, business owner and Board member of many Alberta organizations, Kara Johnston, business owner and Stephanie Harpe, actress, musician and owner of Shapeshifters Talent.
The overall theme that they all touched on was finding a need in the community and creating a business to fill it. Creativity is key. They also advised to contact Indigenous Economic Development organizations for advice and funding.
After lunch and a performance by The Metis Jiggers, Terry Bird presented his keynote presentation. Terry is the Lead Advisor, First Nations and Metis Initiatives, for multinational company K+S Potash. He is a Human Resource specialist and gave some great advice to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous businesses on creating good Indigenous hiring and procurement policies. He also spoke on the benefits for First Nations in developing Economic Development corporations to provide continuity to business practices when leadership and councils change in First Nation communities. “The key for resource companies working in First Nation territories is engagement. Build trust with the Chief and council, but also the community.”
Related: George Gordon man recognized for success in bringing Aboriginal suppliers, employees to potash mine
The next panellists joined Terry on stage to speak on Indigenous HR policy. Led by Milton Tootoosis, the panel covered many aspects of hiring Indigenous staff and creating good HR policy. Jim Nowakowski, President and CEO of JNE Welding, Jeff Ross and Kelly Lendsay, President and CEO of the Aboriginal Human Resource Council, lent the crowd their advice on HR policies. They all agreed that companies, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, need to stop talking about Indigenous policies and just create them if they are serious about inclusion.
Related: Forum finding ways to increase Aboriginal engagement in all mining aspects
iSummit 2017 will be held in Lloydminster October 11 & 12, 2017. For enquires on the event, please contact the Lloydminster Chamber of Commerce, 780-875-9013 or info@lloydminsterchamber.com