“Consultation has gone from a nice to do, to a must do”: Interview with Lee Ahenakew – sfnedn.com

SFNEDN Board member Heather Exner-Pirot talks to Lee Ahenakew, Principal of Lee Ahenakew & Associates and Executive Consultant with Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs Investments about structuring EDCs, the business impacts of the TRC, and the ongoing evolution in First Nations-Industry partnerships.

Exner-Pirot: You’ve been involved with Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs Investments in a process of reorganization. What has that entailed?

Ahenakew: The purpose of the work we’ve done in the last year has been, first of all, to make sure that BATC investments and its structure was aligned with the way we do business and our relationship with the Tribal Council.

BATC Investments was previously owned by five individual First Nations, and even though the Tribal Council was a partner, it didn’t have any ownership of the business. We’ve restructured it so now the Tribal Council is the controlling shareholder of the business and the First Nations own almost all the equity. In that way, since it’s a Tribal Council initiative, the Tribal Council will oversee the business but the First Nations will see the benefit at the end of the day. That allows us to work more closely with the Tribal Council particularly in the area of industry relations and employment & training. We were doing that already, but now it’s built in to our structure.

Read More: http://sfnedn.com/2017/08/10/consultation-gone-nice-must-interview-lee-ahenakew/