ANTIGONISH, N.S. — If you’re looking to start a big project in northern Nova Scotia, you’re going to meet Rose Paul.
Because if you don’t knock on her door, the chief executive officer of the Bayside Development Corporation is going to find you.
“When there’s projects happening in my area, I’m going to go right to the top to see who they are,” Paul told a panel discussion on Indigenous investment on Wednesday at the Atlantic Economic Forum.
Over recent years, First Nations throughout Atlantic Canada have been increasingly intent on taking ownership stakes.
Most notably was the $1-billion purchase of Clearwater by a consortium of five Nova Scotia First Nations and seafood processing company Premium Brands.
But even when it’s not outright ownership, an opportunity to take an ownership stake and consequent share of the profits from large developments is now an expectation for nearby First Nations.
Paq’tnkek, Potlotek and Membertou have all become investors in EverWind Fuels (how uch asn’t been released). EverWind purchased the former NuStart transshipment terminal at Point Tupper and is working on a $6 billion project to build a massive amount of windmills to supply its proposed green hydrogen/ammonia plant on the site.
Membertou and Millbrook First Nations have become regional economic drivers with their large developments in industrial Cape Breton and Colchester County.
Titled Indigenous Business and Economic Development Opportunities for Atlantic Canada, the panel had Paul, Cape Breton University aboriginal business studies professor Mary Beth-Doucette, Ulnooweg chief operating officer Christopher Googoo and Indigenous Works CEO Kelly Lendsay discussing the road ahead — for First Nations, for businesses and institutions.
Paul explained how Paq’tnkek has spent the past decade reshaping its own legal and financial accounting structures to position it to get in on the business opportunities.
The Bayside Development Corporation, which she heads, is Paq’tnkek’sbusinss arm.
It built and opened the $13 million Bayside Centre in 2018 along Highway 104 that includes a gas bar, restaurant, convenience store and commercial space.
“The Fiscal Management Act for us has been a power tool in my First Nation,” said Paul, of the act available on Bayside’s website which lays out the financial management structure under which Paq’tnkek operates.
“We’ve utilized these tools to get financially managed and certified.”
That’s made them a more attractive partner for developers seeking both investment and public support for their projects.
Looking to the future, the leaders on the panel said they expect to work with both private industry and public institutions in future developments.
Within their own communities, Googoo said concentration has to be on exposure to the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics, because that’s the future of the economy.
“We need to build digital fluency in our kids — that exposure to tech that builds human capital,” saidGoogoo
Ulnooweg is a non-profit that provides mentorship and loans to Indigenous businesses, technological and scientific programming in schools and facilitates the creation of Indigenous directed scholarships, grants and donor designated funds.