Award captured for aboriginal partnerships.

• Author: GOULIQUER, DIANNE
• Position: First Aboriginal Partnerships Aboriginal Award - Brief Article

Forestry sector lends management expertise to First Nations' community

A Northern Ontario partnership. between Waabigon Saaga'igan Anishinaabe First Nation, Bowater Forest Products Division (Thunder Bay Woodlands Operations) and Weyerhaeuser Co. Ltd. (Dryden) has been selected as the winner of the first annual Ontario Aboriginal Partnerships Aboriginal Award.

The award was announced in November by Ontario's Attorney General and minister responsible for Native Affairs, Jim Flaherty, and celebrates a successful Ontario-based business partnership between an aboriginal business, community or organization, and either a non-aboriginal business, community or organization.

The collaboration between Waabigon Saaga'igan Anishinaabe First Nation, Bowater and Weyerhaeuser has resulted in the formation and successful operation of the Wabigoon Anishnaabe Gitigewin Inc. Tree Nursery, a 94,000-square-foot facility located on-reserve near Dryden. The nursery is owned and operated by the Waabigon Saaga'igan Anishinaabe First Nation and currently employs eight fulltime staff and between 30 and 40 seasonal workers. It has the capacity to grow between eight and 10 million seedlings.

"This venture illustrates that partnerships between aboriginal communities and the corporate sector are an excellent way of providing business opportunities, expertise, financing, education and training g to the growing aboriginal workforce," Flaherty says. "In addition, corporate partnerships support aboriginal self-reliance, entrepreneurship and the creation of long-term employment, as well as provide, new business opportunities for the private sector."

In order to be eligible for the award, partnerships must be located in Ontario and be at least two years old. Additionally, award winners must have either: established a new aboriginal-owned business; increased revenue and growth in one or both entities as a result of the partnership; increased shareholder value; increased employment of aboriginal...