Council buys diaper plant

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The smallest tribal council in Canada continued its aggressive job-creation strategy with the purchase of AC Diapers of Richmond, BC and the transfer of the company's assets to North Battleford. The Agency Chiefs Tribal Council Inc., which represents the Big River, Pelican Lake and Witchekan Lake First Nations, will re-open the diaper production operation in November, when the reproduction equipment has been reassembled in the Saskatchewan city.

"The diaper business will initially employ 27 full-time people," said Don Kostiuk, executive director of the tribal council. "That number will rise to 60 in two years."

Diaper manufacturing is the third business into which the tribal council has diversified after a decision three years ago to emphasize job creation in the body's mandate. Agency Chiefs has already set up the largest independent Aboriginal pulp supplier for Weyerhaeuser Canada, employing 60 people full-time, and has entered real estate with the completion of a 1,035-sq. m office building on the main street of Spiritwood, which employed seven people in construction and will continue to employ three on an ongoing basis.

"The plant will produce about 300 disposable diapers per minute," Kostiuk said. "We bought the assets and equipment of the only diaper manufacturing plant in Canada, and we've moved it to North Battleford. The purchase and relocation costs were in excess of $2-million." The diapers will be sold through a central marketing group in Vancouver to various retail outlets and will appear on the market in a number of different packages.

Agency Chiefs represents a total population of about 3,5000 who l9ive in an area which is not particularly productive.

"We're located in a part of the province that is not conducive to agriculture, not conducive to forestry, not conducive to anything in particular," Kostiuk said. "We have had to make business and employment opportunities in this area so that our education and training programs will lead to gainful employment."