CANDO Award Winners

This year's conference theme was Strengthening Communities on Turtle Island.Each of the four nominees for the 2005 Economic Developer (ED) of the Year Awards embodied this theme.Whether community-driven or partnership-based, the approaches that these economic leaders have followed take into account the needs of their communities as well as the opportunities that are available to them.All of these nominees have acknowledged the importance of working together as a nation to strengthen communities and generate economic opportunities.In the individual category, Tom Maness from the Aamjiwnaang First Nation (Ontario) and Lyle Leo from the Mount Currie Indian Band (British Columbia) were nominated for the 2005 Individual ED of The Year Award.In the business/community category both the Long Plain First Nation (Manitoba) and the Khowutzun Development Corporation (British Columbia) were nominated for the 2005 Community/Business ED of the Year Award.The following interviews were conducted at CANDO's 12th National Conference & Annual General Meeting in Sault Ste.Marie, Ontario in October 2005. INTERVIEW WITH TOM MANESSSara Cardinal (SC): We're here with Tom Maness, we'd just like to take the opportunity to thank you for taking the time to do this interview and I guess we'll get started.Where was your community at in terms of economic development when you started your work?Tom Maness (TM): Actually, when I started there, I had previously worked with Imperial Oil, for twelve years before I went to work with the band.At that time they (the First Nation) were looking at the concept of developing an industrial plant; there was some infrastructure, but not a whole lot, and we also needed to service the lots.So, we put the engineering in place so we got the lots established.That way, there we had a marketable, saleable item.There was really no point in advertising and promoting an industrial park until we had all of the infrastructure. Shelley Morin (SM):What were some of the biggest challenges or obstacles you had to overcome?TM: I think, initially, the plan was to teach a plan, a comprehensive game plan.At that time we didn't have a comprehensive plan in place and we really needed to take an inventory, what the band's wants, needs, goals and objectives were, that there became a tool for us to be able Sara Cardinal and Shelley Morin are both Education and Research Advisors at the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (CANDO).to develop them.But [it was difficult] getting that plan in place and getting the whole community to buy into the whole concept of development.See, back in those days, that would have been in the early 1980s when I started working there.But, I don't believe they really liked the whole concept or the idea of land surrender, [or as] they called it, surrendered released.So they felt that they lost some Aboriginal identity with the land, so there was the community, to get them to buy into the concept.SC: What are some of the current economic activities taking place in your community?TM: Well, there's a number of them, now that we've matured one industrial park.What I mean by matured is it's full.We have one lot there but it's really not one that we've developed and it's about to be set aside for one of the other companies.There hasn't been one company that's located with us that hasn't increased its capacity by at least fifty percent.So, we like to leave room for expansion.So I think that's what we'll do with that.[With] the economic development activities that are going on right now, we've probably within the last year or so incorporated additional companies.What we're hoping to be able to do is take economic development to a whole new level.Not only to become a good landlord but also become a business partner.What happens there is that we can sell goods and services that are manufactured from the park.We can tap into markets that normally see us as a small company by industry standards that [we] would have difficulty penetrating; we may be able to influence some of that market.That's to our advantage because the increase in manufactured products means increased employment opportunities created by that as well.I think some of the initiatives that we've got going is the second industrial park.We went through the whole process of land designation, although the documentation still rests with the Justice Department and Indian Affairs; we're moving forward with the AGN to do the servicing for that second industrial park.What's going to be unique about the second industrial park is its going to have a different kind of a concept.So we're going to want to be able to attract companies that are environmentally friendly, so

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