Aboriginal business, entrepreneurs "on fire," conference hears
- Angela Hill | August 24, 2016
With an elder’s prayer and wisdom, the World Indigenous Business Forum kicked off its first full day of speakers and presentations in Saskatoon.
“Economic development by Indigenous people is on fire,” said the opening keynote speaker, Dylan Jones, the deputy minister for Western Economic Diversification Canada.
He said Aboriginal small business is growing six times faster than non-Aboriginal small businesses and those Indigenous entrepreneurs are on average 10 years younger than their non-Indigenous counterparts.
Jones acknowledged there are challenges, but said, “the things we need to get right are already happening.” He wants to make sure the focus is not on creating the conditions for success, but on the success itself.
“Indigenous leaders are committed, Indigenous entrepreneurs are committed, we are committed and we are getting it right,” he said.
“And when we are not getting it right, when we mess it up, we learn from each other.”
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Westbank First Nation Chief Robert Louie spoke on the Trading Globally and Recreating Global Strategies panel and central to his message was the importance of working together.
“By helping you we learn as well … we are always willing to learn and that is very, very valuable,” he said.
“We can all learn from one another, which make us strong as Indigenous people.”
Louie talked about the factors needed for success in a global market, including being agile and flexible, building an adaptable trade strategy, and not being afraid of change. He mentioned the importance of measuring successes and participating in trade shows and forums, such as the World Indigenous Business Forum.
There was ample opportunity for full participation in the business forum during the lunch break when 21 entrepreneurs took to the stage for the Marketing Minute.
They had to pre-register and had one minute to do their elevator pitch to the roughly 900 people in attendance.
A member of Empowering Indigenous Youth in Governance and Leadership, Megan Balske, co-ordinated the program.
“It’s great to have in terms of people being able to market themselves, because that’s what this is all for, all for Aboriginal business, all for people coming together seeing how we can grow our Aboriginal business community,” she said.
“I think it’s great for all those small businesses who are trying to grow themselves to have this opportunity to speak about their businesses.”
New and small businesses should be celebrated by communities, said Peter Gosselin, Director of First Nations and Metis Economic Development for the Government of Saskatchewan.
He said that often the emphasis has been on the big deals that Aboriginal communities can make, ones that create wealth and many jobs, but he asks if they are able to spread the wealth around the community. The new jobs and increased income of individuals is great, but if a community has nowhere to spend the money “it goes down the highway,” he said.
In a study of two communities of roughly the same size, one Indigenous and one non-Indigenous, the non-Indigenous community had more small businesses, by a factor of 10, Gosselin said.
He said it’s important to celebrate small businesses as they open, and have encouragement of people with ideas to act on them. He gave the example of talking to a group of young skateboarders in a community with very little pavement and encouraging them to take up the cause of having a skate park created. Gosselin said as he spoke he could see the wheels turning in some of those youth who were natural entrepreneurs.
“I would argue that is as important as the big deal.”
Don’t just chase the big deal, he said.
“The economic development (people) need to discuss how that dollar goes from hand to hand to hand before it leaves town.”
Along with sharing of information and working together as an Indigenous community, there was much discussion on working outside the Indigenous community also.
Leanne Bellegarde, Director of Diversity and Inclusion for PotashCorp, spoke about her company and their work to have Indigenous people participate in the economy. The company has the goal of having 30 per cent of local procurement coming from Aboriginal sources by 2020, Bellgarde said.
Many people give natural resource corporations, like PotashCorp and the uranium miners Cameco and Areva, a lot of credit for their Aboriginal inclusion policies.
However, the Canadian economy is more than just natural resources, said Stephen Lindley, vice president of SNC Lavlin.
“We’ve got a long way to go if we want to meet the challenge that’s been set out for us by the TRC,” he said.
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As more Aboriginal people move to urban areas there needs to be more inclusion of them in those urban workforces, and Lindley suggests using those mining companies as models for a place to start.
While presentations continued all day, there was also much networking going on. Milton Tootoosis, chair of the WIBF 2016 planning committee was feeling good to see everything come together.
“I’m feeling, not overwhelmed per se, but just very excited to actually see the people from different countries that are here. It’s good to see the plan unfold before your eyes.”
Stay tuned for more coverage of the World Indigenous Business Forum & the Saskatchewan World Indigenous Festival for the Arts.