Native business network gets help

Cassandra Kyle, Saskatchewan News Network; CanWest News Service
Published: Saturday, November 24, 2007

SASKATOON -- More than 60 residents of the Big River First Nation are hoping that spring 2008 brings new economic opportunities.

The group hopes to have its artisan co-operative incorporated as a business by the end of March, a move that will increase both economic activity and cultural works in the community, said Marie Prebushewski, western Saskatchewan network developer with the Aboriginal Business Service Network (ABSN).

A one-time funding commitment of $168,300 from Western Economic Diversification Canada toward the ABSN, announced Friday, will help the network continue to bring business information and planning resources to First Nations and Metis communities across Saskatchewan, she said. When communities such as Big River turn ABSN lessons into real business, the whole community benefits, Prebushewski added.

"It will allow the artisans in that community to develop a marketing strategy for the goods that they produce, and it has even evolved into (including) all the training required to form a co-operative," she said.

"There have been some real success stories both on the east and west sides of the province."

While the ABSN received funding for another year, bringing training on topics such as product pricing, money management and bookkeeping to aboriginal communities in the province, Prebushewski and ABSN project team co-ordinator Emily Cherneski are concerned about the future of their program. The Community Access Program (CAP), which provides Internet service and computer access in rural areas, runs out of funding in March. The loss of CAP would slow ABSN operations.

"I think it would be regressive to cancel the program," Prebushewski said. "The First Nations communities just came online in 2002 for Internet access, so it hasn't been that long, and providers are just not going into those communities.

"It's an invaluable service and that's why we developed the ABSN program in conjunction with CAP."

Saskatoon Wanuskewin MP Maurice Vellacott, who announced Friday's funding commitment, said the CAP program is under evaluation, but that doesn't mean it will be cancelled.

"Sometimes it's a matter of adjusting, and that's why evaluations are good, because then when you're using taxpayer dollars you're making sure they get the best bang for their buck," he said.

Similarly, the ABSN program goes under evaluation on March 31. Vellacott said while changes could be made to the program, he doubts the ABSN will be scrapped completely or remodeled in a way that changes its purpose.

"I see potential, definitely, for this type of a program, but (whether it stays) under the exact nomenclature that we have here would be hard to say at this point. In terms of providing inducements and incentive and encouragement to our aboriginal people -- those who have the interest so they can take under their wing and mentor others as role models -- I think we'll have a continuing need for that for a period of time," he said.

With funding to last the ABSN for another year, Cherneski and her co-workers are looking forward to seeing what happens not only with the Big River First Nation, but with aboriginal business plans in other rural areas.

"It's really a community economic development model," Prebushewski said.

"Rather than just entrepreneurialism, it's helping the whole community come up to a level of economic development, and from that, working toward a regional economic development model where communities can partner."

© The Leader-Post (Regina) 2007