Ottawa gives $5.9M to help fund 7 Indigenous and rural Alberta business developments

The federal government announced millions of dollars in funding for Indigenous and rural Alberta business developments.

The federal government will give $5.9 million to help fund seven developments in rural and Indigenous communities across Alberta, the minister for the prairies region’s economic development arm said Tuesday at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT).

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Eleanor Olszewski, the minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada (known colloquially as PrairiesCan), said the funding will help the communities “adapt quickly to what’s a fast-changing economic landscape in our country.”

“What I can say about the projects of national interest is that it’s fundamental for our government to make sure that First Nations/Indigenous peoples have an equity share in those projects, and that the projects that are going ahead have the full free and informed consent of Indigenous peoples,” Olszewski, who’s the member of parliament for Edmonton Centre, told media.

Shelly Mandeville, the co-executive director of Aksis – Edmonton’s Indigenous Business and Professional Association, said at the announcement the “critical” funding — Aksis is receiving $200,000 to develop and operate its Indigenous resource centre — allows the group to expand its work as their “guiding priorities ... are built on community readiness and strengthening those relationships.”

Funding will also go to:

• Louis Bull Tribe: $2 million to develop a Bear Hills 2,000-square-foot travel centre and a convenience store in Maskwacis;
• NAIT: $1 million to develop a geographic information system platform to assist Indigenous communities with consultations for land use and “other types of decision-making with industrial projects and land reclamation,” Olszewski said;
• Siksika Nation: $810,000 to the Blackfoot First Nation east of Calgary, Canada’s second-largest Indigenous reserve, to develop a business resource centre for local entrepreneurs;
• Arts County Wood Buffalo: $750,000 to develop a vacant Fort McMurray property into a large-scale arts incubator;
• the County of Grande Prairie and its chamber of commerce: $689,000 for the northwestern Alberta city to build a regional workforce strategy to attract and retain skilled workers; and
• $458,250 to the Rural Routes to Climate Solutions Society to help the Blackfoot Confederacy adopt regenerative agriculture practices.