Profile: First Nations Bank
As the first independent Canadian bank to be controlled by Aboriginal shareholders, First Nations Bank offers banking services that are just a little bit different. While it does offer a full range of personal and business banking services, at competitive rates to larger financial institutions, its primary focus is to provide financial services to Aboriginal […]
Ask an Expert: Cannabis in the Workplace
At this point, employers in Canada are acutely aware that cannabis or marijuana is about to become a legal substance. However, they might not yet have a full understanding of how this legalization will impact them, their employees or their workplace. One area in particular that employers may require some additional insight into is the […]
Ekati Could Add Seven Years with Fox Deep
Ekati Could Add Seven Years with Fox Deep Dominion Diamond Corporation has reported the results of a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on the development of an underground operation below the mined out Fox open pit at the Ekati Diamond Mine. The favourable PEA on the Fox Deep project suggests an internal rate of return of 23 per […]
Trans Mountain Two-Step
Trans Mountain Two-Step Aboriginal Groups Split on Feds Purchase of Pipeline. If ever Canada needed an example to understand that Indigenous groups’ views and ideas about economic development are not homogeneous it need not look any further than the ongoing Trans Mountain Pipeline saga. The same day Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Natural Resources Minister […]
Northern Energy Independence
Northern Energy Independence As Landmark Study Nears Completion, Hopes High for a Clean Homegrown Alternative to Diesel. Within 120 km of Inuvik and 85 km of Tuktoyaktuk lie three massive gas fields – Niglintgak, Taglu and Parsons Lake – capable of producing 6.1 trillion cubic feet of sweet natural gas. That’s enough to heat one […]
Power to the People
When James Blackman co-founded what would become the Primco Dene Group of Companies in 1999, his community was in dire straits. Blackman is from the Cold Lake First Nation, a Dene community of 2,500 whose reserve lands are near the town of Cold Lake, in northeastern Alberta. There was little private enterprise, few opportunities for […]
Is There Another Way?
Two images, considered together, illustrate the difficult spot that Northern communities are in when it comes to energy. The first: The constantly updating satellite photos showing less and less ice in the Arctic. A second image to consider: The diesel generator. It’s a staple of almost every single community scattered across the North, because it […]
Pipeline Work Windfall
A pipeline segment project near Fort Simpson, NWT, could temporarily boost the area’s economy, while potentially laying a foundation for future partnerships between Aboriginal communities and the oil and gas industry. Enbridge is repairing 2.5 km of the Norman Wells Pipeline, also known as Line 21, which transports crude oil from Norman Wells to Zama, […]
Enterprising Nunavummiut
Enterprising Nunavummiut Inspire Nunavut plans to prepare youth for school and work across the territory. Luke Takohikima Ayaligak’s dream business location is a carving shack, divided into two parts. One side of the building would be dedicated to carving. From the other, he would help people fix their mobile devices: assist them to set up […]
Budding New Business
Budding New Business A look at the new operators bringing cannabis to the consumer. On Nov. 7, last year, the Manitoba Government issued its Request for Proposals for Retail Cannabis Stores. As part of the province’s Indigenous Procurement Initiative, the RFP favoured respondents that included Indigenous business participation. Points were awarded to proponents who offered […]
