Prince Albert group tackles Aboriginal economic development

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What started as a coffee chat among a few friends has grown into a new economic movement for the Prince Albert area. The Prince Albert Regional Aboriginal Business Association (PARABA) hosted its first annual Aboriginal Economic Development Conference on Feb. 4 and 5, drawing approximately 110 delegates to discuss Aboriginal economic development strategies.

Trygve Lee, secretary and one of the founding members of PARABA, said the organization was formed just over a year ago when a small group of Metis business owners got together over coffee to talk about the problems Prince Albert area Aboriginal people were having getting access to jobs, training and business opportunities.

"We were just sitting and identifying the need," Lee said. "Why aren't Aboriginal people and Metis people more active in the workplace? "The built-in support system isn't there, so how can we develop it and build it up?"

What they came up with is PARABA - an organization dedicated to helping First Nations and Metis business people succeed. They created a five-year economic development strategy to increase the profile of Aboriginal businesses and create economic and training opportunities for Aboriginal entrepreneurs, and commissioned a study to prove the economic disparity being felt by Aboriginal people around Prince Albert and the blossoming population expected in the next few years. One of the first steps along the way to achieving the goals PARABA has outlined for itself was the conference.

Titled 'Small Business: Setting the Trend for the Next Millennium,' the conference featured workshops on starting and marketing new businesses, financing, contracting with government and how to get involved in joint ventures.

A $50-a-plate fund-raising dinner on Feb. 4 featured the first James Isbister Awards of Business Excellence, and guest speaker Keith Goulet, NDP MLA for Cumberland.

Paul Daigneault, president of PARABA, told the delegates small business development is a major key to success for Aboriginal economic development and the economy as a whole.

"The mission of the association is a relevant one, given the statistics and the previous lack of opportunities," he said. "Eighty per cent of Aboriginal businesses were established within the last 15 years." PARABA is advocating ideas like forming an Aboriginal business development corporation, an economic development authority and an Aboriginal youth entrepreneur strategy for the area, and part of PARABA's mandate is also to provide opportunities for the growing young Aboriginal population in Prince Albert to get involved in their own businesses. Goulet, speaking at the awards banquet on Feb. 4, outlined what he thinks is becoming one of the major issues for the growing Aboriginal population in Saskatchewan.

"I think the question of self-determination for Aboriginal people has been an important issue over the years," he said. "At the various levels politically, in education control and health control. So we've seen the self-determination effort taking place.

"I would say the key to the next century will be economic development by aboriginal people."

Goulet noted contracts for supplying northern mines with supplies and services have grown from $21 million in 1991 to $180 million this year. And the forestry and tourism industries also show tremendous promise, he said.

"What I see is quite a strong development in the economic sphere in quite a short period of time," Goulet said.

That will be good for Aboriginal people and both the provincial and national economies, he said. He called the next century an exciting time for aboriginal economic development.

"We will be able to walk hand in had with non-aboriginal people and say 'yes, we are equal.'"