Little Black Bear partners with Muscowpetung on building aquaponics facilities

Indigenous Circle: Aug. 20 WATCH: Mick Favel has this week’s edition of Indigenous Circle.

With the goal of enhancing food security for Indigenous people, two First Nation communities in Saskatchewan are building aquaponics greenhouse facilities.

"Aquaponics is kind of two businesses within one. It's aquaculture, which is fish farming, and hydroponics, which is growing plants without soil, you’re growing plants in water,” explained Shane Bellegarde, the CEO of Wakayos Developments.

There will be two facilities, one located at Little Black Bear’s Band of Cree and Assiniboine Nations and the other on Muscowpetung Saulteaux Nation, where both will produce fresh fish and vegetables.

“We’ll be raising steelhead [fish] from hatchlings,” Bellegarde explained.

“It takes 16 months from hatchlings to be big enough to go on your plate and during that time, we’ll be using all of their waste water as fertilizer for all these plants on the other side. It’s a great way to feed our community and employ our community.”

Aside from promoting sustainable food production, Bellegarde points out that the new development will also create economic opportunities for both nations.

“We’re excited to be leaders in this. We’re excited that food sovereignty is something we’re tackling head on,” he expressed.

“We know everyone’s struggling with grocery prices these days so to be able to offer fresh healthy foods within our communities is very important. Right now we're aiming to feed our First Nations and the surrounding communities.”

Bellegarde added that the development has an economic aspect – one the nation is fully expecting to take advantage of.

“It is an economic development endeavor so we want to make some money off of it,” he said.

“But we think that there's the potential here to feed lots of First Nations, lots of communities, maybe this is a place where we're kicking it off, just our two First Nations, but we see something bigger happening in the future.”

Currently both nations are in the early stages of building the developments with plans to open the first greenhouse on Little Black Bear by spring 2025. After it’s up and running, Muscowpetung will be next in line.

"Food sovereignty is key to Indigenous people and it allows us to break free of the dependency on external food sources like grocery stores, corner stores, stores that don't generally have nutritious foods for Indigenous people,” expressed Myke Agecoutay, CEO of Muscowpetung Saulteaux Business Developments.

Agecoutay said the aquaponics facility will also serve as an educational hub for youth living on Treaty 4 Territory.

“Working with Little Black Bear to date has been an absolute pleasure. It's given us the capacity and understanding that we can carry forward in our students and in our secondary institutions,” he told CTV News.

“We're bringing them to the table to see what's happening here and hopefully it provides generational opportunities for them to venture into this space because we are Indigenous people, and we believe wholeheartedly in the land and what it provides.”

“We want to encourage our young people to also look at those opportunities.”