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Wealth creation in First Nations

January 28, 2005 By Uncategorized

Port Hardy, BC

While traveling up to Port Hardy here I ran into my friend Art Mercer who is charge of Economic Development for the Nisga’a Lisims Government. Art is one of the members of the Counsel on BC Aboriginal Economic Development, a group I have worked with a fair amount over the years. The Counsel is a body that is challenging the status quo with respect to economic development in First Nations in Canada. For the past two years they have been hosting an annual conference called “Strategic Conversations” named for the strategic plan we wrote together in 2002. The Counsel firmly believes in the power of conversations to transform the current mental models that limit many First Nations and government approaches to economic development. By encouraging strategic conversations with community members, economic partners, governments and markets, new models of sustainable economic and community development can emerge for First Nations.

We talked a little today, as we always do, about some of the amazing work going on out there, and Art pointed me to a report published by the Skeena Native Development Society called “Masters in our Own House.” The report came out of a think tank of the same name, looking at new models of wealth creation, prosperity, governance and development for First Nations. Clarence Nyce, who was one of the conveners writes in the preface of the report:

Over the course of the term of the Think Tank, we firmly arrived at the conclusion that there are definite identifiable elements that lead to economic prosperity in a free market. Conversely, there are also factors that inhibit and are destructive to economic growth. Common to such factors includes mixing politics with business, having an ill defined governance structure where little or no rules exist, having an absence of private property, assuming that all politics is equal to good economic sense, and having a system that is replete with high transaction costs. In short any model that encourages and creates dependency creates high expectations, instability, and discourages investment and business growth.

While there is tremendous resistance to change, it is imperative that we define ourselves outside of, and away from the Indian Act. While there may be some merit to retaining some aspects of our ?fiduciary relationship? with the federal government, it, nevertheless, remains our challenge to construct economies of prosperity that takes a different road then in the past.

The report itself is a combination of deep economic theory and straight forward practical tools and is worth downloading and reading if you are involved in economic development for First Nations or any small, rural and isolated community.

More evidence of how much good stuff there is right here under our noses.