Conference makes wide strides for Indigenous business: Procurement, Employment and Partnerships Conference and Tradeshow highlights progress and lingering issues between Indigenous communities, business and government.

• Author: McKinley, Karen
• Position: INDIGENOUS BUSINESS - Conference news

There have been great improvements in relationships between Indigenous people, governments and companies, but there's still more work to be done, say those who attended a first-of-its-kind conference.

For many, merely having a conference like this is a giant step in the right direction.

Hundreds packed the conference rooms at the Sudbury Holiday Inn for the inaugural Procurement, Employment and Partnership Conference and Tradeshow on Feb. 6 and 7, to listen to experts talk about their experiences, how things have changed, and what issues still need addressing.

The conference was organized by the Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, and presented by SNC-Lavalin.

The inspiration behind the conference, according to emcee Stephen Lindley, vice-president of Aboriginal and Northern Affairs for SNC-Lavalin, Inc., was talks surrounding plans for the Ring of Fire and how to broker better relations between communities in the area, help build a better supply chain when it becomes an active mine site, and what they have to do in the meantime.

"We are using the time we have right now to get organized," he said. "It quickly turned into a conversation around three elements: procurement, how people will purchase goods and services; employment and training, how are we going to get people ready, so we have capacity and ensuring we have the skilled trades that we need to do the work that's going to be done, ensuring our Indigenous partners are building capacity so that they are ready; and partnerships. Basically, you can't build capacity on your own and oftentimes, it's just as easy to partner with somebody, so that two plus two equals five."

The conversation revolved around back-to-back facilitated workshops instead of single presentations to get people to open up and discuss issues and solutions together, he said.

Overall, he said the turnout was great and they have been getting very encouraging feedback on the issues and the format of the conference. Many of the workshops had a spirited interest and people have been pleased with the timeliness of the conference itself.

"It's something people would like to see more of," Lindley said.

Although the conversation came out of Ring of Fire discussions, the conference is having a ripple effect across many areas, including long-term planning for communities to strengthen their economies, looming shortages in skilled trades and developing resource...