Current Press Releases

Thank you - and congratulations Darryl to you and your board for advancing this idea of a Northern Aboriginal Business Association. I think that this is a concept and an organization whose time has come.

It is my pleasure, as Minister of Industry Tourism and Investment to play a part in supporting your membership drive today.

Thanks to our resources, the ingenuity of our Aboriginal business leaders, and investment through partnered governments, we have been successful in building Aboriginal businesses in the NWT to a point where I believe it has changed the very way that we do business in our Territory.

In fact, we have reached a point, in the Northwest Territories, where the term “Aboriginal Business” is almost redundant – like specifying that the temperature is minus 40 in January.

Unfortunately, these are tough times. Recent events are proving that the economy of the Northwest Territories is not immune to the impacts of the current global economic slowdown.

But especially during this period of economic uncertainty, I am looking forward to having the Northern Aboriginal Business Association as a resource for insight and guidance in the development of programs and initiatives that will be relevant to our territory’s Aboriginal business community and will effectively advance economic development in our Territory.

Our government is working to counter this downturn and provide the economic stimulus needed to maintain employment and sustain economic activity until the private sector can recover.

We will be investing $246 million in capital spending this year. Our infrastructure investment plan will inject over $700 million into the economy over the next five years.

We will continue to solicit industry investment in the NWT and lobby and leverage federal funding and infrastructure programs to develop, promote, and sustain small business in the Northwest Territories.

We continue to invest in ways to attract and retain people to our Territory. Ironically, I believe that this time of economic transition can and will provide an opportunity for us to showcase and highlight the opportunities for investment and employment in the Northwest Territories.

As a Government, we are using all the tools at our disposal to help businesses stimulate the economy, generate income and create further value-added benefits for the NWT.

We do this with the confidence, that economic downturns are cyclical and the long-term fundamentals of the NWT economy remain solid. The pillars of our future cannot be lost – they are our resources, our capacity and our proven resilience and ability to work together and overcome the challenges that we face as Northerners.

Markets will return, new markets will be found – and when it happens, we must be ready.

For the Aboriginal Business Community to continue as a key and driving component of the Northwest Territories economy, we must take the responsibility in this time of downturn to prepare ourselves - to build and ready our companies and people to take the next steps. Training, investment and capacity building should all happen now.

Admittedly resources are tight – we are going to have to rely on each other – on our ingenuity, confidence and our vision for the future. But we know it can be done because we’ve done it before. We did it when we established Aboriginal companies to support the diamond industry here in the NWT; companies like the Aboriginal Pipeline Group; the Deze Energy Corporation; the Deh Cho Bridge project; Falcon Broadband; DDI; Nor Terra; SSI: NTCL; the Mac group – I don’t want to miss anyone but the list goes on.

Now, however, more than ever before - it is critical that you as northern and Aboriginal businesses work together to develop capacity through joint ventures that make use of your expertise and help you prepare for economic rebound.

As we move our economy forward, we will build on the knowledge, commitment and strength of the Aboriginal business community represented by you here today.

I believe that our Territory can lead our country through this economic downturn to a brighter future – and as we do, the Northwest Territories Business Community and the Northern Aboriginal Business Association which we are building today will be a model for Aboriginal economic development and participation – across Canada.

Thank You