Economic Development

Economic Development

– Business & entrepreneurship development, economy building, business planning & financing, impact management benefits negotiations.

The framework of the Economic Development department is complex. The significance of managing and monitoring our land, natural resources and our Title and Rights within our Traditional Territory is crucial.  The Chief and Council recognized the complexity and importance of these issues and proceeded to mandate the Negotiations Committee.

The mandate of the Negotiations Committee is to:

• Negotiate and conclude Legacy Agreements; Right of Way Agreements; as well as a definitive Impact Benefit Agreements;
• The Chief and Council exclusively authorize a Negotiations Committee to carry through all negotiations in finalizing and concluding agreements with each company proposing to do business within our Traditional Territory;

It is anticipated that these efforts will provide significant contract, employment, education, and training opportunities for years to come. The LNIB will continue to be mindful that our way of life depends on protecting the environmental aspects which include the land, water, wildlife and vegetation within our Traditional Territory.

Over the past year, the department has been working on developing a Procurement Strategy. This involved contacting companies performing or planning to conduct business within our Traditional Territory and gathering and collecting information. The information was entered into a database program that would correlate with a Business Registry that we were working on as well. What we are trying to do is develop and implement a contract opportunity component in our department.

In addition to gathering procurement information, LNIB was gathering information concerning employment opportunities with each of the companies conducting business in our Traditional. Territory.  If we did not have resumes within our system, we looked for and gathered membership resumes.  If the resumes were suitable and matched the criteria, they were sent to the companies. If they lacked specific items we began to identify the components that each possible candidate lacked and began to work on training plans.

Each of these efforts is to promote the member businesses and also to assist our members in securing employment opportunities. We recognize that economy building and success also includes providing a nurturing environment for our entrepreneur s to secure meaningful contract opportunities.

Community engagement initiatives are critical and will be a driving force behind this strategy.

Through the successful Negotiation Committee spinoffs, we can expect that employment, and contracting opportunities will be on the rise over the next few years.