Taking a stand in the forestry sector: First Nations blaze a trail in Kenogami Forest.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: ABORIGINAL BUSINESS

The tenacity to stay the course and get their fair share of the economic benefits from natural resources has allowed a group of First Nations to gain ground in the Kenogami Forest.

Recently, the fledgling Ginoogam Development Corporation was allocated 200,000 cubic metres of softwood lumber this year and 250,000 cubic metres next year on the northwestern Ontario Crown forest management unit, which falls within the traditional territories of Aroland, Long Lake #58 and Ginoogaming.

For John O'Nabigon, the corporation's president, having control of such a sizeable wood supply allows them to leverage opportunities to participate with industry on an equal footing.

We felt it was in our rights, not only as citizens but within our Aboriginal rights, to share in the economic benefits with the resource we have. We've never given up pursuing that.

There is a provincial wood directive to send the Kenogami fibre to the AV Terrace Bay pulp mill, but they've negotiated with government and industry to set aside a portion of that allocation for training members from the communities.

The year-old development corporation is an equal partnership between the three communities who've subscribed to the concept of equitable economic participation in the Kenogami Forest.

"It was our choice as three First Nations to pursue this corporation and an overlapping licence as one way to get started," said O'Nabigon, who is also a Long Lake #58 councillor.

The forest license holder is Needak Inc., a corporation of seven area First Nations.

At 4.9 million acres, Kenogami is the second largest area of forest resources in Ontario.

The corporation is considered a job creation and training vehicle for the communities, allowing them to build capacity and take advantage of opportunities long withheld from them.

"There's always been a big pie in the Kenogami and it's been divided up and we never had a piece," said O'Nabigon.

Faced with high unemployment, participation by members in forestry has always been limited to a handful of people working in the sector. And O'Nabigon said harvesting contractors weren't always keen on training Indigenous people.

It costs money to train and production levels go down. The forestry industry is a pretty tight (cost-control) business.

In the past, each community had been allocated 20,000 cubic metres a year to harvest, but it was never enough to run any- ! thing commercially worthwhile.

"We've always been handed crumbs where we couldn't do any...