Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on
Aboriginal Peoples
Issue 12 - Evidence - Meeting of October 25, 2005 (morning meeting)
VANCOUVER, Tuesday, October 25, 2005
The Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples met this day at 9:03 a.m. to examine and report on the involvement of Aboriginal communities and businesses in economic development activities in Canada.
Senator Nick G. Sibbeston (Chairman) in the chair.
[English]
The Chairman: Good morning. Let me welcome honourable senators as well as you, Mr. Calla, and your son, Jason.
First, I just want to recognize that we are on Squamish territory, I believe, and as such I want to thank you for allowing us to be here. With that, we will proceed. Mr. Calla, you are not totally unfamiliar to us. We have seen you before the Senate committee in Ottawa, and it is a real pleasure to be here on your territory this time.
Harold Calla, Senior Councillor, Squamish First Nation: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and welcome to Vancouver, British Columbia. You are in Coast Salish territory, territory that Squamish have resided on, as our elders say, since time immemorial. For those of you who are not familiar with the Squamish Nation, we are a community of about 3,400 people on 24 different reserves stretching from downtown Vancouver — we have a reserve at the sound end of Burrard Bridge — to the Sunshine Coast and north to Whistler. We deliver some 130 different programs to our community on a budget that is in excess of $40 million annually, and about 75 per cent of our program delivery funding comes from the Squamish Nation's own-source revenue. Our revenue comes mainly from our lease lands and the businesses that we operate, and I thought we would be able to see the marina across the water, but somebody put up a building there. We have a 650-foot marina just on the other side. As a nation member, councillor and administrator, I have been involved in our economic development activities for the past 18 years. During this time, we have experienced both the success and the frustration of trying to build an economy under the Indian Act. Within the last year, the Prime Minister has created an opportunity to engage in the development of a transformative-change model to look at how we can improve the lives of Canada's Aboriginal people. This committee will likely have the opportunity to make contributions to these discussions, and we hope these meetings on economic development will provide you with some immediate background as you consider recommendations.
Based on my years of experience, I think the first thing we need to explore is whether or not the Indian Act and the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs will ever be capable of adequately responding to the challenges facing First Nations in developing economic and business opportunities. The timeline for risk/benefit analysis and decision making in today's global economy is not compatible with the timeline of the federal system of decision making. Economic and business development is mainly about seizing the moment and being positioned to assess the assignment of risk and benefits, and where necessary, to engage the private sector as strategic partners. The federal system cannot ever emulate this environment, and nor should it be expected to. What First Nation communities need is to be empowered, to engage in this economy as they choose, to be enabled to match decision making and authorities, as they evolve, with the private sector. In today's government world, there are too many layers of invisible yet powerful forces within the federal system that impact on and, in most cases, direct the responses the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs are able to give when they are considering alternatives to the status quo.
Senator, as you alluded to, I have been in Ottawa a lot in the last eight years, and I wish that all Canadians could understand how our federal system works. I have obviously developed some opinions based upon my experience, but I think one of the more fundamental problems that I have uncovered is the fact that central agencies, particularly the Department of Justice, Treasury Board, Finance and the Privy Council Office, are invisible decision makers that impact the direction that departments and bureaucrats want to follow. I sometimes joke that we refer to them as the trinity of bureaucracy. It creates a system of committee decision making that cannot lend itself to the type of action that is required for effective economic and business development. The Squamish Nation has faced this situation at every turn, and when looking for solutions, found that the need for legislative change was a necessity, not an option. This is why we supported the 1988 Kamloops Amendment on property taxation, the First Nations Land Management Act, the First Nations Fiscal and Statistical Management Act. We are currently supporting the proposed First Nations Oil and Gas and Moneys Management Act, which I suspect will be coming to the Senate sometime before Christmas, and we are hoping that this Thursday, cabinet will give favourable consideration to another piece of proposed legislation called the First Nations Commercial and Industrial Development Initiative that we hope will be part of the body of legislative work for this current session.
These are all First Nation-led initiatives. They are designed to respond to the needs of First Nations as we see them by creating enabling legislation that is designed to address some of the more significant areas that impact not just the establishment of economic and business opportunity, but also the value that is being created. I think what is important to understand now is it is just not good enough to engage in the development of an activity. We have to ensure that we are maximizing the benefit from the activities that we are creating.
The other thing that I think is often not understood — and we do not describe very well — is that it is important to pause and make sure that we are all aware that Aboriginal economic development is not just good for First Nations people or Aboriginal people. It makes a significant contribution to regional economies and Canada as a whole. I can tell you that the economic activity on the Squamish Nation lands makes at least a $1-billion contribution annually to the regional economy. This will increase significantly over the next 10 years. That number, by the way, is estimated by using a reasonable multiplier and the annual sales generated from commercial and retail operations on our land. This translates into significant employment for all who reside within our traditional territory and large tax revenues for all levels of government. The Squamish Nation is not unique. Many other First Nations have opportunities that are waiting to be realized, so investing resources in the area of Aboriginal economic development is a good thing for all Canadians. In the competition for scarce resources, it is important that your recommendations call for continued public sector investment in First Nations communities in the area of economic development.
One of the disconnects that occur from time to time is after we work for four or five years to get the First Nations Fiscal and Statistical Management Act passed, the next budget comes along, and the resources within Indian Affairs for economic development get cut. We have to integrate these kinds of approaches. I realize that everybody wants money, but at some point we have to look beyond this year, these 12 months. We have to look down the road and say, “What are we trying to create for First Nation communities?” If we do not have adequate public sector investment in economic and business development, we will not be able to attract the private sector investment. By the way, private sector investment makes up about 80 per cent of total investment in this country. I believe that the poverty that exists in our communities is, in large part, caused by the lack of private sector investment and the fact that First Nations are not on a level playing field.
The second point I would like to make is that the opportunities for our communities are becoming larger and more complex. The opportunities take us beyond just being landlords of lease lands in this province, based on the legal requirement for accommodation beyond our reserve boundaries. I point out the diagrams behind me. This is a project that the Squamish Nation is undertaking in partnership with Concord Pacific to develop 1,400 units of housing in the Sea to Sky corridor. It is on land that the Squamish Nation acquired through an option as a result of an accommodation agreement signed between them, BC Rail, and the province. We have determined in this particular case that the Squamish Nation will realize its Aboriginal interest, including the inescapable economic component, by becoming involved in the economic development activity in our area and getting our fair share, not by thwarting it. This is the first example of that. Can you imagine the federal system trying to deal with this concept? The opportunities are taking us beyond the reserve boundaries. I think that the complex opportunities require changes in the way both our communities and governments respond if we are to be successful. Our communities need good systems of government, financial management and business practices. We need clear processes for decision making, and we need to take responsibility for the decisions we make. I have spoken to you before about this concept that I referred to as fiduciary gridlock.
I think the time has come that the problems created by this concept need to be examined as a component of your work. Canada needs to support this transition through policies and legislative changes that enable our communities to move out from under the overbearing grip that Canada has over them. The reality is in today's world we cannot make a decision that is not ratified by somebody in the Department of Indian Affairs, the Department of Justice, central agencies, and the list goes on. It is just not the way that we can continue to do business. The legal, policy and power- sharing impediments to diminishing the role of the federal bureaucracy in economic and business development need to be examined and the appropriate changes made. We need entrepreneurial, not bureaucratic approaches, and we must eliminate the oversight rule that was not designed for today's economy and business reality.
Third, I would like to suggest that there is a disconnect between the political decision making and the bureaucratic implementation that needs to be addressed. The bureaucracy cannot be allowed to thwart initiatives through process, and that is happening today, in my view. Those groups I think of as the silent and invisible decision makers, central agencies, need to become more visible and accountable, and we as First Nations people need to have a presence and a voice in the process. In recent months the bureaucracy has responded. In early September I was invited to a session with the Treasury Board Secretary, which was a very enlightening, progressive approach, and we will have to wait to see what the outcomes of that are, because if they do follow through, I think it will be very positive for all of us.
I know there is support for change even within the federal bureaucracy because they are as frustrated as we are. They would like to see change occur, but every time a single department in a stovepipe tries to make some change, some central agency says they cannot do that, and when asked why, the answer is that is not how the federal government works. This is the way we have always done it. Those are standard answers that people who have to be involved in the implementation, as I am, experience, and it is occurring. There has been some positive change, and I want to acknowledge that. I look forward to the outcomes of this. We have provided some material. I have asked my son, Jason, to respond to questions on some of this. We have done some analysis. We have been able to establish that at the moment, it takes 10 times longer and is 10 times more expensive to do business development on Indian reserve land because of the processes that we are involved in. We have addressed some of those issues through the great work that we have both done in partnership over the last three or four years, and I commend everyone here who has been involved in that, but we also identified work yet to be done. There is more work to be done, and there will be more legislation that proponent First Nations like Squamish, I suspect, will be advancing in the future, because we have to level the playing field. We have to get to the point where it does not cost 10 times more and take 10 times longer to do development on reserve lands. I think that it is another piece of work that needs to be done.
The last piece of information in this kit is a bulletin that describes the First Nations Commercial and Industrial Development Initiative. It is critical and will probably be one of the most powerful pieces of legislation on Aboriginal economic development that you will consider in the next few years because it will provide the opportunity to fill the regulatory gaps that exist between provincial laws and federal reserve lands. It will create investor confidence and stability as we move forward in economic development, and we are optimistic that you will get an opportunity to deal with this as the Senate sometime in the next two or three months.
In conclusion, I do want to reinforce and leave you with three points. I think as you begin your work we need to acknowledge that the Indian Act and the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs are not an acceptable delivery model for Aboriginal economic development. Two, the business opportunities before our communities are becoming more complex and require a capacity for decision making that is not compatible with the current decision-making systems or models.
Finally, we need to address any potential disconnect that we are now experiencing between the political decision making and the implementation. I want to give you an example of what I mean by that. The Squamish Nation was instrumental in supporting the development of the First Nations Land Management Act. We have been trying since the passage of that act to go through the environmental assessment of our lands. It is critical work that we are undertaking because at the date of transfer we become responsible. Until the date of transfer, others are. We are finding that it is difficult for us to get the resources and the commitment to do the due diligence that allows us to go to our membership when looking at a land code and make an informed decision. In our view, bureaucracy is creating some of this dilemma. I think it is being worked on and will be solved in the future. Everybody has recognized the need for change. I am encouraged by some of the things that I have seen within the bureaucracy in the last while, but they will need your support to be able to continue along that road. With that, Mr. Chairman, I thank you for listening.
Senator Campbell: I just have three questions. How long did Porto Cove take you and Concord?
Mr. H. Calla: It took 10 years of discussions between ourselves and the Province of British Columbia before we reached the agreement. Then it took about 12 months to reach an agreement with Concord Pacific. Now we are in the middle of a process of amendments to the official community plan and rezoning, just like every other developer has to do, so it will probably be four years before we actually have cash flow coming through the door.
Senator Campbell: What part did Indian Affairs play in any of this?
Mr. H. Calla: When we sign an agreement with the Province of British Columbia, everybody has a look at it. If we were to go out now and look at how we would develop the financing, as an example, we would be challenged on the authority of band councils to make decisions, to borrow money. Some of these issues were talked about during previous work done in the last couple of years. Because this is fee simple land, the issues are much more straightforward. Once you move this project onto reserve land, the complexities are enormous because of this need to protect the federal fiduciary duty. I understand the need for that, but it creates a complication. It is a challenge. Part of the challenge in this relationship is to ensure that we have adequate resources and we learn and build capacity from the partnership. I think that means putting people in Concord's offices, learning how you become a developer, those kinds of things. On a much smaller scale, every First Nation community in the country that has opportunity needs to build that capacity. That is where an important role can be played.
Senator Campbell: My last question: I have often admired the Squamish Nation in particular for their ability to look outside the box and to make things happen, and the Olympics is truly one of the classic examples. I wonder if there is a way for you to transfer this expertise to the other First Nations in the province and whether that happening, because you have fought the battle and know how to go about it. I think that many First Nations do not have that ability, so is there a way for you to transfer this information with regards to commercial interests within their territories?
Mr. H. Calla: Senator, we try to. We rarely refuse an opportunity, when invited, to go to a community to share that experience, and we do get requests. I think we are in a position to do it. You alluded to the fact that the Squamish was able to reach agreements and that 2010 had an impact. It can be argued that government was prepared to deal with Squamish because of the 2010 Olympics, because of the Sea to Sky Highway. When that imperative is not there, how does a First Nation community get the attention of government? All too often we are driven to a deal because there is a measurement of legal exposure, instead of trying to do the right thing. The current government in British Columbia has taken a bold and progressive step in recent months in agreeing to look at the development of a new relationship. I think Premier Campbell has seen the economic benefits of reaching agreements with Squamish and others and what it can bring to the province. They are prepared to engage in this discussion. The federal government needs to get onside in a supportive role in that process and understand that treaties in British Columbia will come about in time. However, we cannot delay taking advantage of economic opportunities while we wait for treaties to be signed. There needs to be an interim step. Canada needs to support the province in that regard as well.
Senator St. Germain: You people are a success story. It is like having a family. It is easy to run with the winners. We are trying in this study to find some method of accomplishing what Senator Campbell just brought forward: How do you transfer these abilities to those who are challenged, the smaller, poorer First Nations? We were in Northern B.C. yesterday, where we saw huge development in the gas and oil sector, the coal sector, and there will be other mining sectors as a result of the thirst for these items in China, India, and all over the world. The big stumbling block is that treaties and land settlement agreements with these First Nations are not in place, and some of them are very small. I know this is a tall order, but some of us feel that these smaller bands should link together and form larger units. It has happened in the Northwest, where bands have come together to try to do economic development in cooperation. How do we avoid losing a generation of young people in Northern B.C. and have them capitalize on the situation, as they are in the North, the Dogrib and the various others in the Northwest Territories?
Mr. H. Calla: There are a couple of ways. One, those of us who find ourselves in a certain position today were not in that position 40 or 50 years ago. My biggest frustration is people only look at today, they only see the snapshot of today, and they do not look to the future. Obviously land and resources need to be provided to communities in the future, either through modern-day treaties or through treaty entitlement. Also, as part of the evolution, it has taken several hundred years to get to this point, so we will not solve it in five years. You have to develop capacity and to learn. That means, in part, that those of us who are experiencing the challenges today, and who are identifying the kinds of solutions that are needed, have to be supported. Those changes need to be put in place on the ground, because having opportunity come knocking in your territory and being able to realize that opportunity are two different things. It is too late when First Nations communities start to discover the impediments to economic development, because for the first time they may have an opportunity knocking on their door. The changes need to be made, and we have talked about a few of them here. We will be coming back to talk to you about land registry, land title insurance. We have to create a seamless mesh.
I think the best way that you provide for these communities is by ensuring that the impediments that they will eventually run into are solved before they have opportunities, and by creating centres of best practices and expertise that they can call upon. How many times do we have to create a land lease? There is no reason why we cannot create centres of expertise and share some of the concepts that have been developed in making commercial arrangements. Look at how we change policy within the department. The concept around managing the fiduciary duty of the Crown when it comes to leasing land is we will protect it by having five-year rent reviews, just as a policy issue. The fact is that if you are trying to encourage somebody to invest a couple of hundred million dollars on your reserve land, they want certainty. The people who provide financing want certainty. Five-year rent reviews do not give you certainty. We have to look at an entirely new approach to managing both the expectation and the duties. I think that, initially, it comes down to saying that an ever-increasing number of communities in this province have these opportunities. If you go up and down Vancouver Island, just about every one of those communities now has opportunities that I do not think they saw five years ago. We need to solve the systemic problems in the structure of the relationship between government and Indian communities. Then, if we have centres of expertise and the ability to share — I think we can do that — you can keep the communities where they are.
The other important point is that we have a labour shortage here. I have talked to a number of people in the construction industry in this province who are importing people from Ontario in order to stay on schedule. We have lots of people. There are 16,000 status Indians in downtown Vancouver whom we can train, put to work and provide opportunities for, but we need changes to the system. We need changes in how HR dollars can be spent, those kinds of issues. There are lots of solutions, but you have to develop this horizontal management approach that is being discussed at the federal level. That is why I am so encouraged. In the meeting with Treasury Board Secretariat that I went to, every department that delivered a program to First Nation communities was in the room talking about a more effective approach. We see that as positive. That is how I think we will address it.
Senator St. Germain: I have one other, short question. It is with regards to private ownership or CP lands. What work is being done to allow individuals more certainty of ownership on reserve lands?
Mr. H. Calla: At the moment, senator, there is absolutely no question of certainty of ownership on a CP.
Senator St. Germain: If I may interject, what I am concerned about is not only the certainty of the CP but being able to act on it financially.
Mr. H. Calla: First of all, we are not the best community to talk about CPs because we do not have any.
Senator St. Germain: You may have to have some.
Mr. H. Calla: I suspect they face the same challenges that we would face: You have to have an interest in land that you can pledge in order to secure the kind of financing or equity that you need to create economic development. As I understand the case of CP lands, they have ownership of the land. It is the closest you will ever get to fee simple on reserve. They can pass it down. They can do all those kinds of things. The band council as a government, whether it be like a local government or a provincial government or other, does have control over the activities on the reserve, so issue like zoning and those kinds of matters are discussed, how you provide services, as an example. One of the biggest reasons you do not see economic development on reserve lands is because there are no water and sewer services. You try to get water and sewer for economic development out of the Department of Indian Affairs. It is not part of their mandate. We are building those tools, as we did with the Fiscal and Statistical Management Act, to allow those communities to be in a better position to do that and to have the CP holder in a position where that can happen. There is no question that they have to work together. The band council and I have met with communities that have this challenge. I will not say I do not know anything about it. The fact is it is no different than you buying a piece of land in your municipality and having to work with the municipal council to deal with the official community plan, the rezoning, the services, the development cost charges, all of those things. That does not just disappear once you get onto reserve land, whether you have a CP or it is band land. You still have to deal with those issues. I would suggest there is a requirement for the CP holder to work with the band council to ensure that a distribution of benefits, through employment and other things, occurs as a result of the activity. Then those issues should be more easily resolved.
Senator Christensen: I have a lot of questions, but I will not get into all of them. I think you touched on one point. Given the success that the Squamish have had, you have a lot to offer to both our report and other First Nations throughout Canada who are looking at the difficult process of economic development. You have 3,400 members. Some bands have less than 1,000 and some have less than 100 in their communities. In the Yukon, where I come from, we have the Umbrella Final Agreement, and the difficulty is getting the different bands and groups to share on simple matters like the template for a lease, a template for joint venturing contracts, setting up an administrative process that works. I think that is really important, especially for the smaller bands, to give them that kind of direction. It must not come from Indian Affairs, because you just get a bureaucratic template that does not work. Somehow, it has to come from the tribal councils, the national leadership, because that helps with the capacity building. That education, capacity building, and the ability to arrange good financing and bonding are the keys to good development. I am not sure if you have any suggestions on how that can happen.
Mr. H. Calla: We have embarked on a road that started with the First Nations Land Management Act to look at the development of capacity through First Nation institutions. We understand that there is a need for a standard of care and an oversight rule. The question is where does it come from? Historically, it has come from Indian Affairs. We are now suggesting that as First Nations find themselves ready, they participate in enabling legislation that allows for the creation of First Nation institutions. They may have a relationship with Canada and with government, but it is not direct, and we can develop this kind of capacity, centres of expertise and the sharing that you talk about. In 1988, with the Kamloops Amendment, it was said that there would only be 14 bands in Canada that would levy property tax. There are now over 100. It has been as a result of the Indian Taxation Advisory Board, which could provide advice and information to First Nation communities who were considering it. It was from First Nation people to First Nation people, and that is the opportunity we see for First Nation institutions.
Senator Zimmer: My question relates to your second point, on business opportunities and bureaucracy. A lot of people do not realize that the federal government is four times larger than the largest corporation in this country, and since Confederation, all of the records have been kept on paper files. The Prime Minister has mandated the President of the Treasury Board, Reg Alcock, to streamline that system, and he will be doing that aggressively, I understand, in the next couple of weeks. They will be revealing plans on exactly what you have talked about. You are very successful in the business that you do, and a topical issue right now is urban reserves. The one in Saskatoon is very successful. We are looking at one in Winnipeg on the Kapyong Barracks site, the old National Defence land. What are your thoughts on urban reserves? Are they successful? We realize it is important to make sure that they are accepted within the community and that it is done properly.
Mr. H. Calla: First, I think urban reserves at this point provide the great hope for the transient Aboriginal population that exists in this country. As I mentioned earlier, through HRDC and the data that we are required to accumulate, we understand there are 16,000 to 18,000 First Nations people in downtown Vancouver to whom the 10 bands in this area deliver programs and services. I think that urban reserves can be very successful in addressing the urban Aboriginal employment opportunity issue and creating services, but the biggest challenges they face are matters beyond the control of the federal government; they fall into the provincial domain. That is, the relationship between local governments and First Nation communities. How do you secure services and develop relationships that permit the economic development activities to take place? If you have the opportunity, look at the First Nations Commercial and Industrial Initiative in this binder, the concept of filling these regulatory gaps. We think that will smooth the process and create more harmonized relationships between First Nation communities and the communities in their traditional territory. We see tremendous opportunity on urban reserves. If you look on the North Shore now, the only green space left is ours, unless you are above 1,200 metres. People are knocking at the door and want to see us develop our lands. The challenges are: How do you do that in the current environment? How do you arrange financing? Will you be a landlord? Can you have an equity interest? Will you create employment? There is a series of questions that arise as a consequence of trying to deal with it, particularly the first time. We created a shopping centre lease in 1964 for the Park Royal Shopping Centre, and actually it is a miracle that the council of the day was ever able to do that. Now that I know what I know, I sit in amazement that they achieved that in 1964. Today we are looking at building a shopping centre at the other bridge and either owning it outright, or owning it at some time in the future with a joint venture partner. There is a transition occurring, but there are 40 years of capacity and learning from mistakes, because we made mistakes just like everyone else will. We are now in a much better position. There is enough corporate memory because we are still all alive. We now have to pass it down. I think there is great opportunity for urban communities, but the challenge they face is how to develop relationships with regional districts and local governments.
Jason Calla, Economist, Squamish First Nation: One of the other benefits, perhaps, of an urban reserve that you do not think of automatically is the business development aspect. In fact, the Capilano Reserve at the north end of the Lions Gate Bridge not only has a shopping centre, but an office building. My office is there. I always joke that the best place to find information about First Nation issues is either the parking lot of our building or the food fair at the mall. Many First Nation organizations have office space in the building because it is in Vancouver, it is central, it is on reserve. There are obvious tax reasons why people want to locate there, but also the simple fact that there are a number of organizations there. I have heard about Michael Porter, who talked about clustering an agglomeration of economies. This is the First Nation cluster of businesses, and perhaps that is something that might be of benefit to urban reserves as well.
Senator Lovelace Nicholas: I just have a couple of quick questions. In the Squamish Nation, do the grassroots people benefit from these business endeavours?
Mr. J. Calla: Absolutely. Because we are a collective, all of the revenue gained from economic activity goes into general revenue to deliver 130 different programs and services to our community. We have elder care. We have youth crisis centres. If you went through the list of programs, you would see they are significant. We are also in a position, because we have own-source revenues, where we do not have to discriminate between on- and off-reserve members in terms of eligibility for programs. We fund those off-reserve members out of our own-source revenue. Yes, there is a significant benefit. In fact, I argue that because 88 per cent of our own-source revenue goes to subsidize government programs and services, our marginal tax rate is actually 88 per cent.
Senator Lovelace Nicholas: Do women have the same opportunities in starting up their own businesses?
Mr. J. Calla: Absolutely. In fact, women make up the majority of our membership. We are here at their discretion. We have had many successes. I was the first accountant to return home. We have now graduated two, both of them women. You may have heard of Pam Baker, who is in the fashion business, employing people in sewing on our reserve. In fact, the women in our community are probably more entrepreneurial at the moment than the men.
Nelson Leeson, President, Nisga'a Lisims Government: First, let me say thank you very much for providing us the opportunity to be here amongst you. We recognize the importance of the work and the deliberations that you are carrying out throughout the country, and we think we have a story that will benefit not only us, but all people, when it comes to this area. Some of you I am familiar with and met through the treaty process; it is good to see you again. The Nisga'a Nation has participated in the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs' national review of First Nations economic development as well as the Office of the Auditor General of Canada's study on First Nations institutional capacity as it related to economic development. We have shared with both groups our frustration when moving our applications through federal government agencies. There seems to be a mindset that treaty nations have huge sums of uncommitted funds and that our applications should therefore be stymied. It was our hope that the recommendations of the two federal studies would assist treaty nations in redefining relationships as they relate to economic development funding. We are all aware of the existing policy statements and reports to the Government of Canada, and the recommendations in reports such as Report of the Auditor General of Canada to the House of Commons, 2003, chapter 9: “Economic Development of First Nations Communities: Institutional Arrangements”; and Gathering Strength, 1997. The federal government made a commitment to “expand opportunities” for economic development and to reduce obstacles.
The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, 1996, documented the substantial gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people in Canada in key areas of income and employment.
Therefore, to begin, the Nisga'a Nation would like to share with the committee, the process that Nisga'a Lisims Government is taking to address the existing gaps and the barriers to achieving sustainable economic prosperity. From the outset, we recognized a need for improvements that will require assistance from the federal government. Over the past five years since the treaty came into effect, Nisga'a Lisims Government has successfully created an effective government structure. With governance in place, Nisga'a Lisims Government leaders are now focusing on rebuilding the local Nisga'a economy. The Nisga'a Nation is working to support our traditional culture, while at the same time cultivating new ways of economic and entrepreneurial thinking. One goal is to use the treaty to establish the basis for a diversified and sustainable economy. In support of this goal, Nisga'a Lisims Government is exploring and improving on partnerships in resource development such as fisheries, forestry, ecotourism and green hydroelectricity. Nisga'a Lisims Government is currently developing an alliance with an academic institution. The main outcome of this alliance will be to build the capacity required to achieve economic self-sufficiency within the Nisga'a Nation.
It has been said that true economic prosperity walks on two legs, and we endorse this view. Infrastructure development is the first “leg.” Economic prosperity requires infrastructure development, done strategically by observing the community trends and projecting future needs. Through our fiscal financing agreements, we develop five-year plans for programs and services. Economic development remains a priority in designing and implementing those plans. To survive and develop, communities and local enterprises require infrastructure such as roads, communication networks, transportation, resources, power and other basic elements. Enterprise facilitation is the second leg of economic prosperity. This will foster Nisga'a people's ability to utilize these infrastructures and will help to elevate the nation to economic prosperity. Our observation is that most community economic development programs are only one-legged and their effectiveness ends when the infrastructure development is complete. Enterprise facilitation can provide the other leg by assisting self-motivated individuals in their efforts to capitalize on opportunities.
With this new knowledge, Nisga'a Lisims Government continues to explore ways to achieve sustainable economic prosperity while preserving our nation's culture. For the Nisga'a Nation, infrastructure development started with the Nisga'a Treaty, which focuses on effective governance, resources — culture, land and capital — and property rights. Enterprise facilitation is about enabling the Nisga'a people to use that infrastructure. It provides a dynamic tool in the hands of economic development practitioners and civic leaders who wish to grow their economies from within. Enterprise facilitation serves as a catalyst for excitement about the possibilities for entrepreneurship in any community, harvests social capital to put the resources of an entire community behind local business success, and includes tools, programs, paradigms, attitudes and education.
With this new awareness, Nisga'a Lisims Government will begin to focus on the following objectives: to determine how the natural resources and financial capital of the Nisga'a Nation can be best used to develop infrastructure to enable enterprise facilitation and the sustainability of our resources; to understand the characteristics that define the current state of attitudes and education of Nisga'a people in respect of innovation and heritage; to determine how enterprise facilitation programs can be most effectively designed and implemented with the Nisga'a Nation; to design and implement practical tools collaboratively with Nisga'a business clusters.
How is the committee's study on Aboriginal economic development similar to Nisga'a Lisims Government? A number of national reviews are being conducted in an effort to improve results from the numerous economic development programs. The most recent one in which Nisga'a Lisims Government participated was the Auditor General's report presented to the House of Commons in 2003. One of the main points of the report is found in chapter 9, on page 1, paragraph 9.4:
However, federal support for institutional arrangements is not yet sufficient to help First Nations overcome barriers and take control of their economic development. Federal organizations need to:
consolidate the administrative requirement and improve the adaptability of business and support programs.
help First Nations identify and build consistent and fair institutional arrangements in a timely way, and
use a more horizontal approach for economic development programming.
Based on these and similar federal findings over the years, it appears that there is still frustration over how to achieve results. The approach that Nisga'a Lisims Government has identified for its direction may be an option for the federal government to consider. It appears that there needs to be a focus on economic facilitation and allowing flexibility in the application of existing programs to the particular opportunities in a geographic region. Canada has a number of existing programs and tools that could assist and expedite what Nisga'a Lisims Government is trying to achieve.
The Nisga'a Treaty is about a government-to-government relationship that could be used to achieve improved and positive results in economic development. However, there is at least one ongoing problem, alluded to above. Many federal officials and departments seek to disqualify the Nisga'a Nation from federal programs based on their erroneous assumption that our treaty replaces or obviates these programs for our people. They seem to think that the treaty provided us with so much money that we no longer need the assistance available to other First Nations and Aboriginal people, but nothing could be further from the truth. Paragraph 16 of the General Provisions Chapter of the Nisga'a Final Agreement expressly provides that:
Subject to paragraph 6 of the Fiscal Relations Chapter, nothing in this Agreement affects the ability of the Nisga'a Nation, Nisga'a Villages, Nisga'a Institutions, Nisga'a Corporations or Nisga'a citizens to participate in, or benefit from, federal or provincial programs for Aboriginal people, registered Indians or other Indians, in accordance with the general criteria established for those programs from time to time.
Nevertheless, the first five years of implementing the Nisga'a Treaty have been very frustrating. We found that many federal departments fail to recognize that the agreement did not remove access to federal programs and services. This, together with other problems in respect of the implementation of comprehensive land claims agreements, has led the Nisga'a Nation to join in a coalition with every other Aboriginal government and organization that has achieved a modern treaty in an effort to persuade Canada to establish a new land claims implementation policy. The Land Claims Agreement Coalition is continuing in these efforts, and we hope that we will have the support of senators in this important initiative.
For the Nisga'a Nation and neighbouring First Nations, there are major opportunities unfolding, such as the container port in Prince Rupert, the cruise ship terminal, the recently announced liquid natural gas plant in Kitimat, the gas pipeline, the coal bed methane gas in the Bowser Basin, and tourism development, to name but a few. These major developments require federal programs to assist First Nations' participation and enable us to become business players. An example of a major development elsewhere in British Columbia where the federal government provided support is the 2010 Olympics. First Nations close to that event received support and are developing their respective opportunities. Perhaps the facilitation of existing federal programs in Northwestern British Columbia will assist in reducing the high unemployment rate of First Nations. Our local Aboriginal human resources service provider, Skeena Native Development Society, compiled a 2003 labour market census and found that we have an average 54.12 per cent unemployment rate, with 31.21 per cent seeking employment and 12.96 per cent not seeking employment. Note that 25 First Nation communities are located in Northwestern B.C.
There are a number of federal business service providers located in Terrace and Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Although locally operated, First Nations are not allowed to utilize the program services, as the one-template approach does not work in the remote or rural parts of British Columbia. In addition, the service delivery providers are subject to decision makers located in regional centres such as Vancouver. The lack of local knowledge of local opportunities slows down decision making and sometimes business opportunities are lost. I have always heard that business waits for no one, and we are starting to see that. While local federal business service providers try to respond to local opportunities, they experience internal barriers. There appear to be breakdowns in interdepartmental communications.
In conclusion, with our assets and rights, gained through the Nisga'a Final Agreement, the Nisga'a Nation will be involved in developments with the private sector to fulfill our goal of creating business and employment opportunities for Nisga'a citizens. We are open for business. We invite the federal government to work with Nisga'a Lisims Government on a government-to-government basis, within the context of our treaty, to explore ways to improve the results of federal economic development programs and to help achieve the objectives of our new relationship. We will leave a copy of the labour market survey that I alluded to for the senators. If there are any questions, both Mr. Mercer and I will entertain them.
Senator Christensen: In many of the presentations that we have received, there seems to be a particular theme: I will just quote: “Successful First Nations communities must separate politics from business, but ensure that the politics is supportive of the business.” I think this is difficult to do in some First Nations because there are not that many people and capacity is a problem. How have you addressed this?
Mr. Leeson: This has been one of the biggest challenges. We preach it, but actually making it happen is another thing. I will give you an example. A community has a store. The store is successful, and they turn it over to a corporation. The store is making money. The community government decides that they had better take it over again because it is generating money. That is the kind of thing that we see. It is a steep learning curve for us, but we are getting there, and all our policies and everything else that we are evolving speak loudly to the separation of politics from business.
Arthur Mercer, Economic Development Coordinator, Nisga'a Lisims Government: As you have said, it is difficult to separate the two, so we look more at what are the productive roles of politics and business. Certainly with the implementation of our treaty, the Nisga'a look at the skill sets. The expertise is at our highest level right now. It is our government level and our elected people, who built communities while they were negotiating the treaty. Now they are leaders for the Nisga'a Lisims Government. We have the capacity and the skill sets right now to begin our corporate direction at our village government level, our Nisga'a Lisims Government level, to incubate businesses first and then roll them out, as we are starting to do this year, when we will have one corporate entity that handles Nisga'a Lisims corporations, and our village governments are doing the same thing. The complexity in this is under the Financial Administration Act. When you start generating revenue, you are looking at own-source revenue and the formulas that are applied that impact fiscal financial arrangements. It is one of the most difficult tasks. In the regime under which we grew up, under Indian Affairs, it was more of a communal approach, communal business. When you look at the transition from community owned to private sector owned, you run into generations that do not have problems supporting a communal business, but have a lot of difficulty supporting a private sector business.
Senator Christensen: Just perhaps to finish that particular quote: “It is important to keep the money in the business to sustain it and to resist the pressures to take the money out to be used in social programs in the community.” Thank you.
Senator St. Germain: As you know, we were there five years ago. Have you arrived at the taxation issue? You accepted taxation, did you not, in your agreement?
Mr. Leeson: Eight and twelve years.
Senator St. Germain: That was my greatest apprehension, but it has not taken effect yet. I hope it works out. You cited these various projects that are coming into the region, like the container port, the cruise ships. What are you doing to educate and train people on your reserve so that they will be able to take advantage of the opportunities there? Are you doing anything to explicitly develop skills that would be applicable to these industries, and if you are, would this training be available to non-Nisga'a, like Gitsan or Tsimshian?
Mr. Leeson: We have very busy people at the community level and our urban locals are trying to get people ready for these coming projects. We have partners with good-sized pockets who want to work with us through training. It is really something to see, not only in the villages, but the people from the urban locals come together and work towards that goal. In whatever we do, even the kind of employment we create today, a lot of non-Nisga'a benefit. It is not a priority only for Nisga'a people. People are starting to see that, whether it is in forestry, fishery, or various areas. If we do not have the skill set, we go out and get it. If they happen not to be Nisga'a, that is fine. The challenge is there, and the potential in those projects that you mentioned is quite exciting.
Chief Roy Mussell, Chairman, Ch-ihl-kway-uhk Forestry Limited Partnership: Thank you and good morning. My name is Chief Roy Mussell, and I do know a few of you here. I have talked with some of you. I have been involved with human resource development since 1984. I have graduated from that and spend a lot of my time now working at home with the Ch-ihl-kway-uhk tribe. My First Nation's name makes reference to a responsibility to bring people together to recognize spiritual and cultural values. I will share with you this morning a bit about Ch-ihl-kway-uhk Forest. It is a non-replaceable five-year forest licence in the Chilliwack River Valley, totalling just over 225,000 cubic metres. That is about 44,000 cubic metres per year or $800,000. I would like you to know that while we signed this more than 18 months ago, as I understand it, none of the forest and range agreements in the province are yet operational. Neither of our licences has been granted. We have a wood lot licence and the forest tenure licence. It is important for me to share with you the experience that yes, there can be a political will; yes, there can be policy implementation; but yes, we can experience delays and barriers within the bureaucracy. I say this not just about the federal and provincial bureaucracies, but also about the First Nations bureaucracies with the program delivery and so on.
I want you to recognize that some of the things I am saying today apply to people, as opposed to specific governments or specific departments. I think the lesson has been learned by all of us around the table that First Nations people need to be involved at the ground level with the development of new policy, new legislation and new initiatives. It develops our capacity and understanding of why things become important and how they will be implemented. It is also important to recognize that our communities work within a traditional territory, and generally, the bureaucracy and those implementing things do not have that understanding. For example, our forest and range agreement is within the Chilliwack River Basin. It is only part of our territory, but under our principles, our philosophy and our relationship with our neighbours, we will not leave our traditional territory to exploit forest opportunities in other people's territory. That is not part of our understanding of the forest and range agreement implementation.
Also, there needs to be a greater educated understanding of our spirituality. Certainly in our case, we have a unique and spiritual tie to special areas within our traditional territory that are, at least at this stage, partly untouched. A majority of our territory has been logged. We are looking at a major second growth in the next 40 to 50 years. That spirituality becomes important to us in forest management, and it seems that our initiative in trying to preserve and protect areas of the forest for spiritual purposes is not being understood, recognized, and considered as part of our forest planning. I did have an opportunity to hear some of your questions, and I think that it is important to recognize that we can hear from the Squamish and the Cowichan and a few others about their experience in development, but I pose to you that we are not all the same. We are not located close to the same opportunities, so it is like a business opportunity for starting a corner store. It is location, location, location. Based on that, there needs to be some assistance provided to smaller groups, smaller bands, if you want to call them that, smaller First Nations, to understand where they might fit in the development, whether through treaties, self-government, or just human resource development in small business. There needs to be a greater opportunity to become educated about economic development, what an economy is and how to become involved in it; to have First Nations recognize what an economy is for themselves and how they might fit into the greater economy, whether it be the Fraser Valley, British Columbia, or Canada.
As well, there need to be some tools that provide assistance to communities. I will put it this way: There needs to be a community-based self-assessment guidebook that allows them to understand where they might fit in the economy, in economic development. It might offer questions for them to answer as to the community support — are there human resource development plans, are they considering taxation? It is being able to address all of these questions so they do not take the trip down the road without understanding what is necessary. I bring this forward with the urban reserve idea: There needs to be some way to engage Aboriginal people, whether they are educated or not, in understanding the community's need, the need for the membership to come back, for the membership to become engaged in the community decision making. I think there needs to be some accelerated, focused effort on that. My community of about 450 has about 200 members living off the reserve and in urban centres, and I have a difficult time engaging them in communication and, therefore, in becoming involved with community decision making, including elections. I think they become an integral part of the election process, and they should be coming to the table to express their desires, their goals, at least through the ballot. There needs to be some assistance with Aboriginal policymaking, and I do not mean developing organizations or institutions that control policymaking, but assistance with policymaking. There should be an opportunity to share.
The example I will provide is: If there is a health issue and a major health initiative, Health Canada might come to the First Nations and say, “We want your position on this sector of the population.” First Nation communities will say, “Give us $40,000, we will hire a consultant and get back to you in four months with a position paper.” What happens is the consultant comes in, leaves the paper — the document and the position are there — but the policymaking, the data collection, and the analysis are not left in the community. There needs to be an opportunity to engage in research and policy development to a point where the money that is invested stays in the community and becomes part of the community's capacity-building exercise. They need assistance in collecting and analyzing the data and developing their own policy. I think there are some tremendous examples. You have heard a number from around the table today, and in the past, I am sure, of where that capacity has been developed, but smaller communities do not have the same opportunity, and therefore do not have access to that tangible product at the end that says this is the road and this is how we have come to where we are in 2005.
Let me finish by saying that forest and range agreements, certainly in British Columbia and with the Ch-ihl-kway- uhk tribe, have resulted in a major initiative in becoming engaged, in understanding all the things that are necessary in engaging community members, in developing relationships with provincial agencies, federal departments, and so on. I think they recognized, certainly in our case, that whenever there is a change in the economic development programming, whether it be WED or INAC, we notice it immediately. We would like to encourage, however we can, the continuation of economic development programming for First Nations, and not just for ourselves, for everybody. We think there needs to be an opportunity to access that type of money if and when we are ready. I want to put a bit of an emphasis on the fact that we do seem to be creating these institutions, and we talk about creating more institutions. I am not sure as to the value of those institutions with regard to recognizing the depletion of the jurisdictions of First Nations and their elected leadership. There are major concerns that need to be addressed through human resource development boards, health boards, and all those things. Those institutions become separate entities that are not accountable to the people the same way elected officials are. Various departments and agencies are relying on those recently created institutions instead of increasing the accountability and capacity of First Nations leadership.
Chief Robert Dennis, Huu-ay-aht First Nation: Thank you for inviting me today. I am certainly honoured to be here. I have not been before a committee such as this, so certainly for me it is new. Looking at the criteria you have sent out to us, how do you measure success in a small native community such as I come from? I come from the west coast of Vancouver Island. Huu-ay-aht First Nation is the name of the tribe. We are a little bigger than that of my colleague here. We have 594 Indians in our little tribe. I want to start by giving you an idea about where we work. In the early 1990s our nation received a small amount of revenue, of which 90 per cent was federal or provincial money. In the early 1990s I would say 50 to 80 per cent of our people were on Social Assistance. I would also say that 90 per cent of that number lived below the poverty line. We had a daunting task before us: What do we do? How do we do it? One of the first things we did was to look at some historical data and question what happened. I remember in 1971 the average income of a Huu-ay-aht First Nation member was $15,000. In 1971, $15,000 was a pretty good income. I think if you looked at today's standards, it would probably put you in under the six-figure mark.
Then in the early 1990s, the average income was $10,000. Something was wrong with this economic picture. We took a substantial amount of the little money that we had and conducted an economic study. We wanted that economic study to identify opportunities for us. It has done that. It identified forestry, aquaculture and tourism as the opportunities available to the Huu-ay-aht First Nation. We also had to use another portion of our small amount of money as an investment fund to get involved in forestry, aquaculture and tourism. We had to make some other major decisions that we feel were necessary to succeed. Some of the speakers before me mentioned that separating politics from business was critical. We saw that absolutely. It had to happen. Where did we go? I spent a bit of time with the Premier of British Columbia. I was fortunate to be invited to his office on quite a few occasions and I presented him a brief about where I felt we needed to go in order for the Huu-ay-aht First Nation to become participants in the British Columbia economy and the Canadian economy. I outlined to him some areas that I felt we needed to work on. One of them certainly was forestry. We were clear that we were prepared to apply for tenure under the existing programs.
Today I stand before you to proudly announce that we have paid more money in stumpage and other revenues than we received, so there is a benefit factor here to the two governments, the province and Canada, showing it is worthwhile giving First Nations an opportunity to be involved in the Canadian economy. It is important that governments be willing to take that risk. It is like any entrepreneurship. You move forward with a risk. I think governments have to move forward and be willing to take that risk if we want to see successes and achievements in the Canadian economy, especially as it relates to First Nations. It is important that government provide more opportunities in the area of capacity building; in particular, that the Department of Indian Affairs look at criteria that enable more flexibility to be implemented so that First Nations can develop capacity at the community level. I think it is important that a treaty be settled, more so in our small area where we are focused on fisheries and forestry. There are some items or issues in there that require governments' attention so that we can achieve an economy. Certainly if we were successful in concluding a treaty, the treaty should provide more opportunity to individuals so that they can have an income.
I alluded earlier to 1971, when we had an average income of $15,000, and that was because our people were involved in the commercial fishery. They were not involved with the big boats or the big companies. We were just little guys at home, like the farmer on the Prairies. He has his farm. He makes his living. We had our boats, and we went fishing. If we made $10,000 or $15,000, we were able to survive in this society. As you may or may not know there were some drastic changes. I believe that government and industry implemented policies and regulations that effectively removed us from the fishing industry. All that is needed, in my opinion, is to come up with some kind of initiative that enables us to be involved in the fishing industry again. It will take some innovation. It will take some good thinking. I believe it can be done. You will not hurt anyone in the process. Everybody else will still catch their fish when that little Huu-ay- aht fisherman catches fish, that small amount of fish that he takes from the total catch, so we are not hurting anybody. I would like the Senate committee to convey that message to the powers that be, that if we can get access to the fishery again and become participants in the Canadian economy, it would help us immensely.
Also, the Nisga'a alluded earlier to the issue of OSR. I do not mind paying back money that comes from Canada or B.C., but all I say to you is that it will take quite a while for me to catch up to the rest of Canadian society. If you went to Bamfield where I come from and went over that road once, you would never go over it again; that is how bad the road is. It needs to be paved, in my opinion, and once it is, you open up the opportunities for tourism development in our community. I do not think we want to become another Tofino, but certainly we would not mind becoming a community where we can diversify and have other opportunities in tourism development. Both the governments have to pay close attention to capital infrastructure. Capital infrastructure and a paved road to Bamfield would be a benefit to both Native and non-Native. That is what I want to close with. That has been our profound principle for the last few years: working cooperatively with industry, working cooperatively with government, working cooperatively with our neighbours enables us to succeed and get to where we are. My closing statement is I told you that in 1990 government money was 90 per cent of our revenue. Today it is 10 per cent.
Senator Lovelace Nicholas: I have a question for Chief Mussell. You mentioned something about membership. Do the people who live off the reserve choose to do that?
Mr. Mussell: Of course, not all of them.
Senator Lovelace Nicholas: What do you mean?
Mr. Mussell: There are some who would like to live in the community. We have a very nice community, although housing is an issue. Everything related to housing is an issue. Even the land base is not there. The band's land is limited. The family land holdings are limited. Therefore, that type of development is still a contentious issue.
Senator Lovelace Nicholas: I have one question for Chief Robert Dennis. You are requesting more dollars for your community. Do I understand correctly?
Mr. Dennis: Absolutely not. We are not requesting more dollars for our community. I am requesting that the two governments give consideration to additional funds for capital infrastructure development in the region, not just in the Huu-ay-aht community.
Senator Lovelace Nicholas: Do the stumpage dollars go back to the people in the community or to the business?
Mr. Dennis: In this case, stumpage dollars went back to the Province of British Columbia, and I do not know what they do with it.
Senator Zimmer: Chief Mussell, Chief Dennis, thank you for your presentation, especially for pointing out that First Nations are of different sizes and have different resources — that is extremely important. You mentioned you had four industries: fisheries, of course, forestry, agriculture, and tourism. What is the breakdown of that, especially in the area of tourism? What percentage of business do you do in the tourism area?
Mr. Dennis: Right now we do approximately 12 per cent, but we forecast, especially when the road gets paved, that will turn around, hopefully, to maybe 50 per cent.
Senator Zimmer: There is an organization called Aboriginal Tourism Canada. I have talked to some of the counterparts in Manitoba. They have indicated that it is a good portal and a facility into tourism to assist First Nations. However, there is the request that they need probably more funding to facilitate that. Would you agree with that, that there has to be more activity in that area to assist your First Nations groups in the area of tourism?
Mr. Dennis: I would agree with that, very much so, but I would take it a little further. There has to be more of a commitment on the part of the First Nations to start using some of their own resources. At least in my experience, a lot of us First Nations are afraid to use our own resources when there is a risk involved.
Mr. Mussell: I think that it is worth sharing that we are engaging in tourism possibilities. Of course, I think it is understood that development for tourism is often seasonal, whether it be Whistler for two seasons of the year, or some areas with just skiing, for one season. It is important for us to be able to manage our culture, our values, to engage tourists in a meaningful experience, to have them certainly spread the word and to return. With that comes the need for experienced assistance and understanding from government departments. I am not sure of everyone's situation in the province of British Columbia, but although we have a tremendous number of reserves, they are also very small. They are not like some of the reserves on the Prairies, where there are thousands and thousands of acres. One portion of our community is 29 acres. We do have another one that is 300. I am just saying that we are now surrounded by development in some cases, and when we look to become engaged with our traditional territory or the Chilliwack River Basin, we find that we have to deal with many different agencies and departments to become part of the planning exercises, engage in tourism opportunities, attract investors and so on. All the ducks need to be lined up. It is difficult for us to get all those ducks lined up when we have to re-educate every agency we go to about who we are and what values we provide to the economy of the Fraser Valley, British Columbia and Canada.
I am saying that there are differences among First Nations, not only in the opportunities, but the size of the opportunities and where to become engaged. I would like you to encourage others to understand the need for us to become engaged with things like the Species at Risk Act and how that is developed and implemented, because it impacts upon us as a people and our culture. Species at risk are obviously important to us as well. In the province of British Columbia there was no consultation, no engagement and no accommodation. All of a sudden some law is there, and now all the plans we have made for certain wood lots are tossed out the window because a majority of them are within the Wildlife Habitat Act, part of the Species at Risk Act, and have become useless to us. However, maybe there are ways to become engaged in tourism, to educate people as to what these species are and how to preserve and protect them. We find ourselves changing oars midstream here because of things on which we are not consulted.
Mr. Dennis: Just to make one more closing comment — and it is related to natural resources — I have provided information on what I would call the pillars of our economic development. There is a fourth one lying on the horizon. I do not know at what point Canada may consider offshore oil and gas development, but certainly it is an area that our nation is not afraid to begin exploring. Are there opportunities there or are there risks there? We need to look at that, and I would certainly hope that Canada will begin to look at that in a different light in terms of having community consultations on that particular issue. Thank you.
Mr. Mussell: I do appreciate your time. I know you are very busy and have an important mandate and I thank you for the opportunity to share our experience with you. I think it is worth saying: Money is not the answer to communities' social problems. At least, I do not believe that money is the answer, and at times the community itself has to address that question. Is economic development and money generation an answer to the problem? I think there are examples in major centres around Canada where sometimes more money generates more problems. Social problems face all of us, regardless of whether it is First Nations or non-First Nations, and I am not sure that money is the answer.
The Chairman: We now have before us Brennan Gohn of the Khowutzun Development Corporation; she is the communications manager.
Brennan Gohn, Communications Manager, Khowutzun Development Corporation: Thank you. Good morning. I am a Cowichan Tribes member and also the communications manager for the Khowutzun Development Corporation, which is a wholly owned economic subsidiary of the Cowichan Tribes. My presentation today will provide a brief introduction to our community and share the story of our economic development and our vision for the future. For those who do not know where we are, the Cowichan Valley is on the southeast coast of Vancouver Island on the west coast of British Columbia. It is a land of rare beauty, with rushing rivers, great mountains, sandy beaches, forests and meadows. We have about 70,000 residents in this resource-rich community, and the Cowichan Tribes are an integral part of its strong business climate with our traditional territory around the city of Duncan. Cowichan is the largest native band in British Columbia. We have over 4,000 members and we are growing quickly. About half of our members live on reserve. We are governed by an elected chief and 12 councillors and are currently in stage 4 of treaty negotiations, negotiating an agreement in principle. We are part of the Hul'qumi'num Treaty Group, which is a group of six separate but closely related tribes.
I should also mention that Hul'qumi'num is the name of our language. As well as being the largest First Nation, we are also one of the most progressive in terms of delegating responsibilities, promoting new initiatives and actively pursuing self-sufficiency. Cowichan collects taxation on reserve on all gasoline, alcohol and tobacco purchases and uses this revenue to supplement economic development activity, housing, and youth and elder programs in our community. The band's current operating budget is about $55 million per year, with revenues from a variety of sources. Revenue from our business operations is in excess of $24 million. As you can see, Cowichan is a significant economic contributor to the valley, as a high percentage of these dollars are spent right in our community. Approximately one half of all commercial businesses in the city of Duncan are located on our reserve lands, from which we collect tax and lease revenues. Cowichan has become the third-largest employer in our region, employing over 600 people.
The Khowutzun Development Corporation was established by the leadership of the Cowichan community in 1993 to develop and manage all business interests on behalf of the community and to transform economic opportunities into training, employment and wealth for the Cowichan people. The Khowutzun Development Corporation reports to an eight-member board of directors, including two outside business advisers. This board responds to our chief and council. At the Khowutzun Development Corporation, the value of investment is measured on the social and economic benefits returned to the community. KDC strives to maximize the long-term benefits for our membership through training, employment, and management of entrepreneurial opportunity. It is because of this focus that we aim to be the first-choice employer for our community. Education and training is fundamental to our success, and we have built the infrastructure that supports ongoing capacity building from within while maintaining the highest levels of professionalism and quality of business practices.
Fifteen years ago, 80 per cent of our employable population was unemployed. Today, we have created over 600 jobs in our community, and 75 per cent of those jobs are filled by Cowichan people. Sustainable, meaningful employment is a driving force behind our focus. Our goal is to create economic independence and a strong economy for Cowichan Tribes, understanding that a cultural aspect of the community is to play a role in how KDC operates. There is a desire to have Cowichan's economic situation strengthened by being able to provide security and financial decisions through the corporate vehicle. It is understood that these things will happen over time as we work towards our corporate goal.
Today, Cowichan Tribes own and operate six companies. They are the Quw'utsun Cultural and Conference Centre; KMC Group, general contractors; Khowutzun Forest Services; KMJ Kitchen and Bath Centre; the Cooks Island Nursery and Golf Centre; and Cherry Point Vineyards and Estate Winery. Total economic revenues for the group of companies are approximately $24 million this year. The Quw'utsun Cultural and Conference Centre, incorporated in 1990, is 100-per-cent owned and operated by Cowichan Tribes, employing about 30 people. Annual revenues for this company are about $1 million. The centre welcomes over 45,000 visitors each year from around the world and operates year round, featuring cultural interpretive tours, multimedia presentations on the history of the Cowichan people, on- site artists and demonstrators, midday salmon barbecue and shows, one of Vancouver Island's largest art galleries, and the Riverwalk Café, featuring traditional foods. The centre has diversified over the years and now serves as a conference centre with full-service catering through the winter season. KMC Group, our general contracting company, was established in 1991 and is 100-per-cent owned and operated by Cowichan Tribes. We have roughly 200 employees. This is our largest company and will generate annual revenues of approximately $15 million this year. These revenues are up from $11 million last year, $8 million in 2003, and $5 million in 2002. KMC operates four distinct divisions: natural gas pipeline, residential/commercial construction, civil works, and traffic control. The pipeline division has been installing pipeline for Terasen Gas for the last 14 years. Our operation is based primarily in Victoria, British Columbia; however, we have completed contracts in Nova Scotia and the resort community of Whistler. We are proud of our longstanding relationship with Terasen Gas and will continue to build on this partnership. Following the growth of our pipeline division, KMC was positioned to diversify its operation and a structural division was formed.
Prior to 2000, all work associated with housing projects in our community was being outsourced to external contractors. resulting in major economic leakage. About 400 Cowichan homes were affected by mould. A $60-million contract had been negotiated between Cowichan Tribes, CMHC and INAC to address the remediation of our homes on reserve, and this provided a built-in market for this division. The structural division generates about $8.5 million in revenue each year and employs 80 to 100 people, including Red Seal carpenters, ticketed journeymen, first- to fourth- year apprentices, and skilled labourers. Dozens of Cowichan entrepreneurs have been hatched from KMC Structural, and we now have equipment owners and operators, roofers, painters, drywallers, ticketed electricians and plumbers who are subcontracting with our company as well as contracting with the industry at large. Another area of opportunity that resulted from the Cowichan housing project was major civil infrastructure work. Our employees had been trained in the area of pipeline installation, and transferring that knowledge to the installation of water and sewer systems was a natural progression in capacity building. KMC Civil was contracted by Cowichan to conduct road, water and sewer work on reserve and actively bids on work outside the reserve boundary, competing with industry at large. KMC Civil was the highest volume purchaser of water/sewer pipe in our region last year, resulting from several major projects with the Ministry of Transportation and Highways.
In 2002, Cowichan had an inventory of approximately 20 trained and certified traffic control persons, and only one of those people had a job. As a result, our company bid on and secured a contract with the highways maintenance contractor to provide traffic control services throughout Vancouver Island, which created 35 positions for traffic control personnel. At peak season, our traffic control division employs 50 people and has successfully matched qualified, trained Cowichan individuals with employment within our company. In 1998 Khowutzun Forest Services was formed. Prior to the formation of this company, Cowichan had no equity interest in the forest sector of our economy, and most of the work initially conducted by this company revolved around silviculture activities, brushing, weeding and right-of-way clearing. In 2003, Cowichan Tribes signed a $13-million forest and range agreement and have used a portion of these funds to build capacity within this forest company. We have secured ownership of a community forest and have completed a forest management plan that will see Khowutzun Forest Services harvest 20,000 cubic metres of timber this year. Khowutzun Forest Services is 100-per-cent owned and operated by the Cowichan Tribes. We employ about 20 people and will generate about $2.5 million of revenue this year. It is a full- service company, providing forest management planning, engineering, silviculture, harvesting, firefighting — a new area that we are involved in — and GIS mapping to the forest sector.
We have recently formed a strong partnership with TimberWest and have a standing contract to provide firefighting services to them. In 2001, 15 Cowichan members successfully completed training in the millwork and joinery trade. We viewed this as an opportunity to use this unique inventory of skilled trades people and purchased the school where our members were trained, primarily because they went through the training but were unsuccessful in securing employment. We saw that as an asset and invested in that particular industry. The school was converted into a residential and commercial high-volume cabinet manufacturer. KMJ Kitchen and Bath Centre is 100-per-cent owned by Cowichan and employs about 15 people. KMJ has become the third-largest cabinet manufacturer on Vancouver Island and will see revenues of $2.5 million this year. They strive to produce high-quality kitchen, bath and office cabinets to the marketplace at competitive and fair prices, delivering these products on time. Our division has hundreds of custom cabinet options to meet the needs of its customers, and we have developed a showroom in downtown Duncan featuring many unique kitchen and bath accessories to complement the cabinets.
Again, the Cowichan Tribes housing project had a built-in market for this company. From that base market we were able to expand and now have become a cabinet manufacturer that has built up quite a market, being the third- largest on the Island. In 2003, Cowichan acquired the Cooks Island Nursery as 100-per-cent owner. The nursery employs about 30 people and generates $1.2 million from the sale of long English cucumbers and operations of our golf course. The Cooks Island Nursery and Golf Course consists of 50 acres of agricultural land reserve, 11 acres of valuable highway frontage property, 15 greenhouses, a par 3 golf course, and three water wells that have been tested, with tests showing that the water quality is among the best in Canada. These wells produce a significant volume of water. The nursery has gone through a $1-million upgrade in the last year that now enables year-round cucumber production and diversification of products. Our cucumbers can be found in major supermarkets in Duncan, Nanaimo and Victoria on Vancouver Island.
A unique side of this story is that this particular business, growing and selling the cucumbers, was established by a group of young entrepreneurs in the Cowichan Valley. The youth were structured through a youth council, and they worked with a business adviser to put together a business plan. This nursery's success came primarily from the vision of the group of youth who initiated the project. The long-term goals for the Cooks Island property include the continuation of the cucumber production and other greenhouse products, commercial development on the highway frontage section of the property and exploration of water export markets.
In 2002, the Khowutzun Development Corporation reviewed the strategic direction of our business development and investment initiatives and adopted a more aggressive, sectoral approach to our community economic development. Our board began to look at new industries and found that agriculture and viticulture showed opportunity in our region. Through that process, Cowichan became aware of an opportunity to purchase an existing vineyard and winery in the Cowichan region. Following intense business studies, Cowichan Tribes decided to enter into negotiations for the acquisition of Cherry Point Vineyards. One year later, in April 2004, Cowichan became the 100-per-cent owner of Cherry Point Vineyards and Estate Winery, located south of Duncan in Cobble Hill. This business employs 30 people and generates annual revenues of $1 million. Cherry Point was established in 1990, licensed as a farm winery in 1994, and has a history of producing award-winning wines. Cherry Point produces 10,000 cases of wine each year and manages 24 acres of vines and 13 varieties of grapes. When Cherry Point was acquired, none of the employees were Cowichan.
Today, 30 of the 32 employees are Cowichan Tribes members and 65 per cent of our sales are made at the farm gate, which is the highest rate of farm-gate sales in British Columbia. Cherry Point has won two major awards at the prestigious All Canadian Wine Championships. Our 2004 Gewürztraminer won top honours, capturing best in category, a higher placement than gold. Our famous Blackberry Port received a silver medal in the fortified and sweet wine category. This is also the highest achievement in Cherry Point's 15-year history. The Northwest Wine Summit has announced four of Cherry Point's wines have received awards, including gold for the 2004 Siegerrebe and their Pinot Noir, and silver medals for their Merlot and Pinot Gris, with a special Jerry Mead award for best-value wine for the Siegerrebe. Cherry Point wines are VQA approved and distributed in cold beer and wine stores and liquor stores throughout Vancouver Island, the Lower Mainland of British Columbia and Alberta.
Early in 2004, Cowichan Tribes, with strong support from the community and leaders in Aboriginal and non- Aboriginal communities, entered a bid process to win the 2008 North American Indigenous Games for the Cowichan Valley. We outscored Chilliwack to become the successful British Columbia bid and prepared to compete against Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec for the privilege of hosting the games. In October 2004, after a lengthy selection process and presentations in Denver and Connecticut, the honour of hosting the 2008 Indigenous Games was awarded to Cowichan. In August 2008, 6,000 athletes and 3,000 cultural participants, 2,500 volunteers and countless spectators and supporters will congregate in the warm lands of the Cowichan Valley. The Cowichan has devised a realistic and achievable athlete-focused operational plan. Our budget to host these games is roughly $10 million. We have secured commitments from the Province of British Columbia, the Government of Canada and local municipalities. The Cowichan Tribes themselves have committed $3 million of own-source funds to see these games are successful. We will be seeking corporate partners and developing an extensive merchandising plan to generate the remaining requirement. It is estimated the economic impact of hosting these games in our community will be over $30 million and that 90 per cent of it will stay in the Cowichan Valley. Our success in our bid to host the 2008 North American Indigenous Games is an opportunity to create a legacy of healthy lifestyle choices for our future generations.
To conclude, I would like to share with you our vision for 2020. We see our community living healthy lifestyles, practising our culture and speaking our Hul'qumi'num language. By that time, we hope to be recognized and operating as an independent government; that we have a fully employed workforce both on and off reserve; that there will be a variety of on-reserve housing for all who want to live on reserve; and we aim to be economically self-sufficient and a full participant in the strong and vibrant Cowichan Valley. The Khowutzun Development Corporation, on behalf of Cowichan Tribes, has made great strides in representing Cowichan's economic interests, setting standards for First Nations in Canada, and will continue to build on the success for our community. It has been an honour to join you today and share the story of Cowichan, and from our community, thank you.
Senator Christensen: Thank you and welcome, and certainly I know your area well. In the early 1940s I attended QMS for five years. We used to ride down the river there a lot. It is a wonderful success story. I would assume that a lot of that would be due to the strong marketing and entrepreneurship that your community has had for many years through the knitting of Cowichan sweaters. They were sold right across the country, and it was only through good marketing and the foresight, I would imagine, of the elders of your community that that happened; and that has carried forward into the younger generations. How do the community members benefit from all of this development that has taken place, all the corporations and companies? Are they considered shareholders? Do they benefit that way, or is it through programs and such?
Ms. Gohn: All profits that are generated through the group have been reinvested into business development. That standard, as set down by the founders of the organization, has been maintained. It has enabled us to leverage those funds to take advantage of other economic opportunities in our region and create employment and training options for our community members. Unemployment is still an issue in our community, as is capacity building, and the leadership of Cowichan feels that the profit dollars that are generated could be better used to serve the community through investing in economic development opportunities. We do other things. We sponsor events. We have a huge community investment area within the group. We offer scholarships and bursaries, we make donations to community events and things of that sort, but our focus is creating meaningful employment for our community members, who may have previously been taking home a social assistance cheque. They are now earning their dollars and have gained some meaningful training that is transferable and gives them employment options.
Senator Christensen: Training has certainly come up a lot in the presentations, the ability to get training. You appear to be bringing a lot of specific training right to your area. How do you do that?
Ms. Gohn: Education is a cornerstone of our community, and Cowichan has built a strong value system on partnerships. Our late chief, Dennis Alphonse, negotiated to bring Malaspina College to reserve lands. That was very important to our community. Two years ago, Cowichan opened the doors of its own preschool, and that is just one step towards bringing those opportunities into an accessible part of our community. We have continued to work on our relationship with Malaspina, and in fact, we recently announced they have brought a vineyard management program to the Cowichan campus in support of our acquisition of Cherry Point. This is a great step forward. Our students no longer need to travel to the Okanagan to take these courses. The courses are being brought to the community. We meet with Malaspina University-College regularly and talk about our development goals, and they in turn structure what they offer at the school based on those needs. It is a huge step forward. We support capacity building within our group of companies as well and encourage advancement and pursuit of higher learning, so that our members in entry-level jobs do not get stunted. We have dollars in Cowichan Tribes' education department that can be applied to helping them achieve those things.
Senator St. Germain: It is an amazing success story, Ms. Gohn, and thank you for coming. As a British Columbian and one of the senators from this province, I have always been proud of your little niche on the Island, and the way you put it to us here this morning is certainly encouraging. You have touched on what I was planning to ask you about, about education being the cornerstone. I was planning to ask you whether it is leadership or education that produces the success, but I guess it is a combination of both. Are the Elders an integral part of the structure that makes decisions within the Cowichan tribal committee? How integral are they to the decision making of the tribe?
Ms. Gohn: Cowichan is run by an elected chief and 12 councillors. I mentioned that we have a youth council, and we also have an Elders council. The Khowutzun Elders are an integral part of our community. In fact, they have a building that was built specifically for them to gather twice a week to conduct lunches. Some of them choose to go there every day. At that lunch table over a meal, as in our traditions, issues are discussed. People have an opportunity to come and present ideas or invitations, and the Elders will respond. They use it as well to share our teachings and our values. When a decision of great importance in our community has to be made, the leadership, although not required by our bylaws to do so, will choose to have a community meeting and seek the support and endorsement of our Elders and our community members. That inclusive process has been in place for as long as I can remember. Much of the work that I have shared with you today has taken place because of the vision of the Elders who were involved at the time. The idea of succession planning is hugely important. I returned last week from Sault Ste. Marie, where Cowichan was nominated as economic developer of the year for Canada. Long Plain, Manitoba, actually won this honour, but we were second, and our presentation format was reflective of our values on succession planning and working with the generations. Our Elder, Philomena Alphonse, who was supposed to be here today, opened the presentation. Ted Williams, our business development officer, continued, and he passed it on to me as the next generation to carry forward the legacy of the founders of our organization and community. Those values run through all that we do.
Senator St. Germain: What percentage of your youth is graduating from secondary school? Maybe that is not a fair question, but do you have any data as to the percentage compared to the average community?
Ms. Gohn: Data have been collected, and I can definitely compile it. The notes will be circulated — I believe I will send them by email — and I can incorporate that.
Senator St. Germain: Would you, please?
Ms. Gohn: Definitely.
Senator Zimmer: Senator St. Germain touched on my question. When you talked about employment, you also talked about education and youth. There is a traditional career path for them whereby they would be then moving into your industries. Is that a priority, where your education and training would be done in the school system, but eventually, they would be the ones employed in your industries?
Ms. Gohn: Definitely.
Senator Zimmer: You mentioned that you are involved in the 2008 Indigenous Games. I worked on the Pan-Am Games and am now raising funds for the Olympics, for Manitoba athletes. Are you or will you be involved in any way in the Olympics in 2010 in B.C.?
Ms. Gohn: Through the bid process, we did meet with John Furlong. We also worked with Charmaine Crooks from the IOC. The Premier as well had expressed support, and there is a natural link between hosting the Olympic Games and hosting our event of two years prior. We will probably be pitching it as an opportunity to trial-run and test some of the systems that will be put in place for the Olympics. One of the areas of particular interest is the accreditation process. Running 6,000 athletes through an accreditation process is not something we do every day in Cowichan, and we think that some of the systems that they will be putting together for the 2010 Games will be of assistance to us. Security is another area. Some of the security personnel who have been involved with the Olympics have come onside as consultants through our bid process; anti-doping is another area where we are trying to find some support and reinforcement. We have recently retained a chief operating officer for the Indigenous Games and a legacies coordinator. Those two individuals will be getting together — I think we brought one in from Saskatoon — and they will be putting together the comprehensive business plan that will show us how we will go about it, and I know that there will be an Olympic component.
Senator Zimmer: I was involved also in the Indigenous Games in Manitoba a couple of years ago. One of the other areas was the Pan-Am Games. I was vice president of festivals for the Pan-Am Games. I am not sure if you are looking at a component like that. We made sure that the Aboriginal element in festival activity at the opening and closing ceremonies was one of our components. The man who did that is Terry Wright. He is right here in B.C. and I know he is heading up the administrative work. You may wish to talk to Terry Wright if you are thinking of doing any festival activities. It is an integral component of what should be in all games, and you may want to pursue that.
Senator Lovelace Nicholas: I have a question concerning the participation in the Olympics. Do most of the traditional people in your community agree with participating in the Olympics?
Ms. Gohn: I am not sure that I understand.
Senator Lovelace Nicholas: You mentioned participating in the Olympics. Do most of the traditional people in your community agree to this participation?
Ms. Gohn: We are not participating directly in the Olympics. We have secured the honour of hosting the Indigenous Games in our community and will be looking for synergies between our event and the 2010 Olympics. The leaders in our community, the community members themselves, from Elders down to the very youngest, all stood behind our bid to host the games in Cowichan. This is because of a vision that was put forward by the youth of our community to bring the highest level of sport in our indigenous communities to our backyard and provide an atmosphere where our young people can participate in the sport of their choice. Be it the Indigenous Games in 2008 or the Olympic Games in 2010, our chief has endorsed this and said we want to breed Olympians. We want to have access to the very best in our community, and by bringing an event of this magnitude into our backyard, we are creating an opportunity for our youth to see the very best from across North America. That will ensure that our youth see that success is attainable and that they, too, can visualize themselves achieving those kinds of goals.
Senator Lovelace Nicholas: I have a question about membership. This might not apply, but were the people who were affected by Bill C-31 accepted back into your community?
Ms. Gohn: That is not something I can answer. I am not sure.
Senator Lovelace Nicholas: You are not aware?
Ms. Gohn: We have an extensive membership department that I know I can gather the information from. There is a membership committee, and a lot of people are returning home. They will apply for membership. This has increased as our development and growth and economic involvement in the community has increased, and some of those taxation dollars are for community disbursement. There is a growing interest in membership, and some guidelines on becoming a Cowichan member have been put in place. I think land ownership has now been included in that. If you want to become a member, you have to have ownership of a parcel of land to be considered.
Senator Lovelace Nicholas: Could you send something to my office to that effect?
Ms. Gohn: Sure.
Senator Campbell: In the early 1970s I had the opportunity to do some policing in the Cowichan Valley. It was a difficult place and they were difficult times. I have watched with great interest over the years the progress of the Cowichan Nation. It truly is amazing and it is a reflection of the people. It is a reflection of a people who said “That is it; we will move forward.” You can certainly take back the congratulations of everyone on this committee. I know that you will go forward. I love the story about the millwrights. There are no jobs, so you buy the school, and then you make it into a company. That is great. I would offer one other area of the Olympics where you will be needing expertise, and that is in the involvement of volunteers — organization of transportation, feeding and all of the rest of it. I would think that the number of volunteers you are talking about is significant, so I know that whenever a major event is held in B.C., they will be looking to bring in people from your community to act as supervisors, leaders, managers. I would recommend that to you, and just keep up the great work.
Ms. Gohn: Just a quick comment about the volunteers. In fact, that is another area that we have recognized. The Olympic volunteer directorate will be looking to recruit their volunteers and ensure that they have opportunities to become involved in events to gain the experience building up to the games, and I believe that our event will be recognized as one of those where they can come and give us a hand.
Keith Henry, Executive Director, Métis Nation British Columbia: I just want to introduce myself. I am the executive director for the Métis Nation British Columbia. I am honoured to have been invited to make a presentation to the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Peoples, speaking specifically on economic development. I wrote a discussion paper just to outline some of the challenges and opportunities that we have been trying to move forward on specifically here in British Columbia. Further to that, I will talk about some examples of what we have done over the last year to further move forward on the issue of economic development. I will come from a bit of a different perspective, in that the Métis Nation British Columbia has had minimal to limited success in terms of economic development, but we have certainly identified that it is a major priority in what we need to do to create a self-sustaining organization. One of the reasons we have had challenges in moving Métis Nation issues forward specifically in British Columbia is a lack of public awareness about who we are, our definition, and who is a Metis citizen. We have spent considerable time over this last year reorganizing and rebuilding our institutions of governance. With that, we have done a fair number of public campaigns on who the Metis are, what we are trying to do and how are we moving these issues forward.
I do not want to bore you with demographics. I am sure you have seen them. The challenge that we have always had with the demographics is that they are Statistics Canada numbers. Under the census information, it is self-identified Metis individuals. We are not 100-per-cent certain that those numbers are accurate. That is one of our priorities, getting at our exact numbers and who the Metis citizens are so we can determine for ourselves what the needs are. At this time, we use them because they are the numbers that are most beneficial and serve the purpose to meet some of the goals that we are trying to put in place. I have had experience with administering around $80 million in programs and services over the last seven years, from employment and training programs, to children and family services and a variety of other areas. I have had some experiences around economic development, and I heard in the previous presentation that one of the cornerstones is education.
We will not move forward on many economic development initiatives led by the Metis communities themselves without the necessary professional, qualified individuals. It speaks volumes about what we see in our employment and training services here in British Columbia. We service around 1,000 Metis clients a year through 14 offices located throughout British Columbia. I cannot tell you how many times I have had people come in and ask about business ideas, and where I do go for this and how will I afford it. The number one issue for them is how they will sustain that business or idea beyond our limited investments. We see these things happening on an annual basis, and from my own perspective, current federal and provincial programs in British Columbia have limited success because there is simply not as much awareness as there needs to be. I am not saying they do not serve purposes, but certainly there has been limited success. Take, for example, this province over the last few years; it just ended a program. It was the Economic Measures Fund. The Métis Nation itself was able to access just one simple program, the Aboriginal Employment Partnership Initiative, where we signed 13 partnership arrangements with industry. We would walk in, do an audit of all the employment opportunities, and as a sidebar, started looking at the procurement opportunities. Those procurement opportunities have been dropped for the most part. We have not been able to resource any projects in that area.
One of the things that we have been trying to do over the last year in spite of those challenges is focus on some industry initiatives. We have targeted specifically here in B.C. the oil and gas sector in the northeast and the 2010 Olympics. In the oil and gas sector, I go back to what I said previously. The challenges are with awareness. To make sure that oil and gas companies in Canada, Enbridge and others, had an understanding of who we are, we went to the federal government through the Office of the Federal Interlocutor and leveraged some money to put on a “Who are the Métis?” forum for the oil and gas industry. Very simple, but it was seen as a major priority; we held it in Fort St. John on May 30 and 31. It was amazing. We had 60 individuals come, I think out of curiosity, from industry, and another 90 from provincial, federal and our internal staff showed up. The questions we got were very fair. People were desperately seeking information about who we were and why were we moving in this direction. They were seeking information about how our governance structure had evolved and why we were set up the way we were. We spent a day and a half giving them reasons why we wanted to be a part of economic development in the northeast.
We have also been participating specifically in 2010 with ASEP projects out of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, the program they put in place a couple of years ago now. We signed a partnership arrangement with the British Columbia Construction Association, the Vancouver Regional Construction Association, companies like PCL, that are developing the convention centre and other major projects down here in the Lower Mainland. We were able, with the partnership with the First Nations and the other urban Aboriginal folks, to come together on one initiative for a $22-million project. That is to make sure that our clients are providing more of the workforce in the construction sector. The other issue within the oil and gas sector itself is we have been trying to form a stronger partnership with BP and Enbridge as the pipeline moves across Northern B.C. with, hopefully, the final confirmation of the Alaska pipeline. The pipeline itself will run from Kitimat in the northwest all the way to Edmonton, and we have been working with them on apprenticeship opportunities and, as a sidebar, perhaps contracting opportunities for our small-business owners. Another initiative that we have moved forward on is the Red River Rangers. We used some of our employment and training dollars. Forest firefighting has been a major industry, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, in B.C., so we thought to have a Metis Red River Ranger of four trucks and five-man initial attack crews. We used our resources. We got the trucks and the equipment. We trained 20 youth. We targeted the ages of 19 to 24.
Over the last two summers we have been successful through the B.C. bid process, and we have been a partner in the forest protection services. It has not been a very busy firefighting summer because we are on the after-list, but regardless, we have had some work, and it was an initiative that we were pretty excited about. The 2010 games are critical for us for a variety of reasons. There has been a major focus on the four host nations, and that is obviously a good partnership, but we think that the 2010 Olympics is a world scene and should include cultures from across Canada. We have been working with the VANOC committee on trying to increase the awareness of the Métis Nation. We have had some initial discussions with the Hudson's Bay Company on a Metis pavilion at the 2010 Games. Hudson's Bay Company has a strong historical relevance to the Metis community itself. We are trying to get a meeting with bigwigs in Toronto, if you will, to see if we can move forward in partnership. HBC is one of the five corporate partners in 2010 itself. We are hoping that this will be a natural fit as part of the games.
Day to day, we have tried to do economic development in terms of merchandising of our organization. If you look on our website — we call it our little Métis Nation store — you can see the cost of some of our sashes and whatnot. You may be surprised that we started marketing things like a colouring book for kids. We did a Colour-Me-Metis, targeted to children aged four to seven, and school districts are looking at ordering these in large numbers. It does not seem like much, but at $1.50 profit a book, you would be surprised how quickly these things add up. We reinvest that in cultural services. Everything that comes under our for-profit envelope within the organization is under a trust. There have not been a lot of resources to move forward, quite frankly. There has been minimal success, but we have certainly laid down some strong blueprints of where we want to go with these economic development measures. This money would all be reinvested in governance and culture. That was the priority of our organization. It has been mandated by our community leaders and is something that we will continue to develop. It is important for B.C. specifically that we move forward on developing a Métis-specific development program that is seed funded. We have been looking at different examples in different provinces, and I liken it to Saskatchewan, where the Metis in that province benefit from the Clarence Campeau Development Fund. They use a portion of the lottery profits each year to seed-fund small businesses.
One of our major challenges is even when our people have an education the economics for a lot of our folks to move forward their business ideas are not there. We have tried to do different things like joint ventures. For example, we were looking at an oil rig in the northeast with a profit share structure. The challenge there is we have no investment resources at our end. We cannot use program dollars to invest $6 million. It would swallow up our limited employment and training dollars. As the Treasury Board changes their rules about what that money can and cannot be spent on, it is having an impact on us. We have been looking for alternative ways to do it. Joint ventures have been proposed. There have been private investors, but in each case, the issue is the ultimate accountability for where this money goes. The organization wants to reinvest any profit dollars in the communities themselves in a variety of priority areas. It is a real challenge for me to speak to this issue because our success has been in terms of baby steps. It has been more about getting our institutions of governance in order over the last two years and redesigning the entire organization; and it starts with a strong government foundation. That is where we focused our energies. The economic development opportunities are there. Our fear is that events like 2010 will come and go without us playing a major part, or even a minor part. We are seeking to do that. We are doing all we can at our end, and we will continue to move that forward. That, in a nutshell, gives you some of the challenges and the discussion I wanted to bring forward. I thank you for that.
The Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Henry. Are you able to tell us the number of Metis in the province and how is you are organized? Do you have locals and so forth? If you would talk about that, please.
Mr. Henry: The Métis Nation British Columbia has three levels of governance. We have our provincial governance, which is our board of directors that are provincially elected, with a vice president, president, seven regional directors. As we have restructured our organization, we have added a youth rep, a women's rep, and we are adding an Elders advisory committee. At the regional level, there are seven regions, each composed of a variety of locals. Right now in British Columbia there are roughly 41 active community associations. Our current numbers: 18 years of age and older on our membership lists is approximately 16,000. The census indicates there are 44,265. I actually do not think that is far off, but until we fully complete our citizenship processes, that will be a moving target.
The Chairman: I noted in your comments that you said something about as an organization, you have not had any real economic success, but I do not doubt that there are hundreds and thousands of Metis people in the province who are successful entrepreneurs. Do you have a way of getting Metis entrepreneurs together in a forum?
Mr. Henry: My comments were specific to programs and program supports that we could provide at the Métis Nation B.C. On our website right now there is a business directory. We have started to try to amalgamate all the Métis small businesses and medium-sized business that we are aware of. What we have done for those businesses is try to act as a conduit for contract opportunities. We have those listed on our website right now. I think we have roughly 25 small and medium-sized businesses. We are looking at some economic development-specific forums for our organization. We have actually developed an economic development strategy that calls for that very thing. As I have stated, though, in my previous comments, we have spent more time restructuring our governance processes this last year. This is a priority area for us now, moving forward with 2010 and those other initiatives that I talked about. There are many that are successful. The challenge we are having, though, especially around 2010, is a lot of the Metis businesses that we are aware of at this time are small and medium-sized, and the contracting opportunities are extremely large in scale. It has become almost impossible for our contractors to access these opportunities. When they are talking about things like food services, the size and the scale of it is so large that we just do not have that economy of scale within our businesses. We are trying to look at how we can bring these small businesses that have similar interests together on joint business ideas to access these bids.
Senator St. Germain: Thank you for coming, Mr. Henry. My question, being Metis and living in B.C., is about the citizenship process. How advanced is that? To me that is the biggest challenge that you face. I think a lot of us have been blessed and British Columbia has provided well for us, but that citizenship process seems to be the challenge — not that I have contributed because of the work I do.
Mr. Henry: We know it is our number one issue. That is why in my comments you heard me state time and time again that we have been building institutions of governance. There has to be integrity in the citizenship process. For anyone who has been following us at all, and I would encourage you to visit our website, we have revamped our entire process. The challenge we have had is the Metis national definition was accepted in 2002. Since that time, each governing member has been looking to implement it. We implemented it in our constitution in 2003, and we gave ourselves two years to build the legislative power to move forward on this. We have, as I said in my comments, approximately 41 active community associations, and some of these have been around for 20 years. They were defining Metis much differently 20 years ago than what the courts have come up with around Metis rights. We have gone through the tremendously difficult task of starting from scratch, one by one. We have built a citizenship process through a legislative act. We put an appeals committee through a senate act. We have developed those institutions of governance that will give us the power to deal with this issue. To date, we have provided provincial citizenship cards to over 1,200 Metis people. We have several thousand sitting in files waiting. There is a bottleneck. We have literally two staff who are genealogists going through these one by one. We have been to the federal government through the Office of the Federal Interlocutor to talk about how we can deal with this a little more efficiently, which means one intake clerk in each region. We have been able to get the governance in place and start moving forward. We will be working on this for the next few years.
Senator St. Germain: Good luck. If we can help you, just call. I do not think I have any other questions at this time, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Henry does remarkable work in trying to establish the Metis in their rightful place in society as a result of the recognition under Section 35 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Our Constitution recognizes us. Senator Sibbeston and I have had great discussions about this. Thank you for coming.
The Chairman: If there are no further questions, I want to thank you, Mr. Henry, for appearing and wish you well in your endeavours.
The committee adjourned.