Companies committed to PAR program

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There were a few new faces in the crowd on Feb. 17 as the Canadian Council of Aboriginal Business (CCAB) recognized the commitment of companies registered in the Progressive Aboriginal Relations (PAR) program.

The recognition came as part of the Circle for 2015 annual gala dinner, held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto. Circle for 2015 is another CCAB program, designed to make corporate Canada more aware of the capabilities of Aboriginal individuals and businesses.

Through the PAR program, member companies are given tools to assess how well they're doing in their efforts to improve relations with the Aboriginal community. The program looks at these efforts in four areas-employment, business development, individual capacity development and community relations.

Companies initially join the program at the commitment level, then, once they've completed the assessment process, they are placed at either the bronze, silver or gold achievement level, depending on the results of the assessment.

There are currently five companies sitting at the gold achievement level, including one newcomer to the PAR program-BMO Financial Group. Also at the gold achievement level are mining giant Cameco Corp., Winnipeg's Place Riel All-Suite Hotel, the remote sites division of food services and facility management provider Sodexho, and Syncrude Canada Ltd., the world's largest producer of crude oil from oil sands.

Three companies-Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries, Aboriginal information technology firm Donna Cona, and Xerox Canada-are at the silver achievement level. Another three-Canada Post, food services company Compass Group Canada, and Manitoba Lotteries Corporation-sit at the bronze level. All three companies at the bronze level are new to that position, having completed the assessment process during the past year.

The companies at the commitment level are a mix of new and old. Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., Kelly Services (Canada) Ltd., Nasittuq Corporation, which operates the North Warning System, the Radisson Hotel in downtown Winnipeg and the World Wildlife Fund join BP Canada Energy Company, Casino Rama, property management and consulting firm Piruqsaijit Ltd. of Rankin Inlet, and Pitblado Barristers and Solicitors and Prairie Architects Inc., both of Winnipeg in this group.

Also at the commitment level are Scotiabank, TELUS Corporation, Veco Corporation, which provides project management, engineering, purchasing, construction, maintenance and operational services to industry and business, and Western Lakota Energy Services Inc., a Calgary-based company that builds and operates drilling rigs in partnership with Aboriginal communities.

Jocelyne Soulodre, president and CEO of CCAB, is pleased with the progress the PAR program and its members have made over the past year. Not only have a number of big players joined the program, but five companies have completed the assessment process and have achieved standing in the program. One of those companies was Syncrude Canada Ltd., which became the first PAR member to re-certify. The company joined PAR at the commitment level in 2001 and originally qualified for gold level certification in 2002.

The recertification process is part of PAR, Soulodre explained, to ensure that once a company has attained at gold standing its commitment to Aboriginal relations continues at that level. While meeting the PAR requirements might be a priority during the initial assessment process, regular recertification will show if such things such as changes in management or priorities within a company have resulted in a lessening of that commitment.

One of the strengths of the PAR program, Soulodre said, is that it gives companies the tools they need to see exactly what they are doing to improve relationships with the Aboriginal community.

"One of the things that happens is, companies get into PAR and they see how much sense it makes and how it allows them to actually put everyhing they're doing that's Aboriginal into one place so that they understand the magnitude. " Jocelyne Soulodre said that in a lot of cases, companies don't even know how much they're doing.

"And PAR, because of how thorough and holistic it is, if you do it right you've got someone from all our big divisions around the table. So you'll have HR and you're going to have operations and marketing, all of that. So it really allows you to say, 'Oh, that's what we're doing. Okay.'

The structure of the program also allows companies to look at their efforts in each of the four different segments and determine which they are strong in and which need improvement.

But getting involved in the PAR program isn't something organizations should jump into before they're ready for the process, Soulodre explained.

"It's a lot of work to go through PAR. It's not that it costs money. It costs internal time, because it makes people find all the policies and document everything. And it's quite a process to go through," she said.

The level of time and commitment the program requires, combined with CCAB's decision to limit the length of time a company can remain at the commitment level before going through the assessment process, has meant that a few companies that were involved in the program have fallen along the wayside.

"There are some cases where the person in the company who heard of PAR and got really excited about it and said 'We've got to do this' has left the company. And it was really that person who was the driver. Or there are other companies where they intended to do it, they wanted to do it, but you know what? It's been two years," she said.

"Just in the last year, we've decided that we're going to enforce some rules a little bit more. And so companies, from the time that they send in their letter of commitment, they're supposed to move to the point of having completed the self-assessment within one year."

There will be some flexibility in the one-year rle if a company is actively going through the process, Soulodre said, giving Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries, which took two years to complete the assessment process, as an example.

"They took the process through the company and they did it their way, and it just ended up taking a little bit longer," she said.

"And as it turns out, Sandra Cardinal of Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries has said publicly that the PAR process in two years got her company to where she hoped it would be in 10. So sometimes you can't be too rigid, obviously. There are times when it'll just take a little bit longer at commitment."

One of the additional benefits a company can gain from being involved with PAR and CCAB is having opportunities to network with other like-minded organizations.

That networking has lead to a partnership between two PAR companies, Sodexho and Piruqsaijit Ltd., who last spring went into business together to provide services to mining operations. The partnership combines Sodexho's experience in providing food services and facility management with Piruqsaijit's knowledge of and connections in Canada's North.

"That's our strength. It's always been about helping to broker relationships and to start to build the partnerships or providing venues and events and tools to help connect the corporate sector and the Aboriginal sector," Soulodre said.

"My dream for PAR has always been to get to the point where-and I don't believe this is going to happen not even in five years, we're probably talking 10 to 15-but to get to the point where if a company comes in to a reserve or Aboriginal community and they don't have the PAR certification, they don't have the hallmark, the people say, "We won't deal with you. Go get your PAR mark and then we'll talk,'" she said.

"It really has to become a way for Aboriginal communities to identify those people that are committed to doing business in a new way."