"Economic Development Corporation forms behind closed doors"

The Six Nations Economic Development Department is no more. Instead, the new Six Nations Development Corporation is taking its place.

And while the corporation is still receiving operational funding from Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada as a department of band council, president and CEO Matt Jamieson says eventually, the corporation will be left to fend for itself through own-source revenues.

The corporation - which Jamieson says is supposed to be arms-length from Six Nations Elected Council - formed throughout the past year and became official in May without any public community meetings.

The corporation held its first open house to answer questions from community members last Friday afternoon at the Six Nations Tourism building.

The formation of the development corporation has been in the works since 2011 when members of the former Economic Development department undertook the "We Gather Our Voices" project.

That project involved interviews in private residences with anonymous feedback from community members in their homes on what they'd like a development corporation to look like.

Since those private interviews took place, one community meeting was held to reveal the results of the We Gather Our Voices project in 2013. No meetings have been held since.

There are three boards in the new corporation's structure: an advisory board, a board of directors and a board of trustees.

There was a call-out for board members in February, with applications received for the advisory board and board of directors, but the corporation is still looking for members of its board of trustees, which would oversee the flow and distribution of funds coming into the corporation.

Sitting on the Board of Directors is: Amy Frank, Ruth Martin, Sabrina Saunders (chair), Jeremy Bouchard, and Claudine VanEvery-Albert.

Sitting on the advisory committee is: Barry Hill, David Moses, and Sherry Lickers (Chair).

Six Nations community members sit at the top of the corporation's governance structure. Band Council comes next (is overseen by the community), and band council then oversees the advisory committee.

Band Council would take direction from the community and provide that direction to the advisory committee. The community itself can also provide direction to the advisory committee.

The board of trustees and board of directors answer to the advisory committee.

Money earned from economic development deals will flow to the community through the economic development trust based on the Community Plan created by the former Six Nations Economic Development department. Jamieson said the corporation won't sit on the finds and only disburse the interest the way the Six Nations Community Development Trust does.

Instead the money will go out as soon as it flows in, he said.

Community members or community organizations seeking funds, however, will still have to submit proposals to the board of trustees.

Six Nations Band Council is the sole shareholder and owner of the corporation.

Funds will flow through the corporation from

Bingo revenues, Tourism revenues, the Grand Renewable Energy Park (wind and solar farm) and A6N (a new contracting firm on Fourth Line road that employs Six Nations people on economic development projects). The funds will then flow to the Economic Development Trust, overseen by the board of trustees, and then, to the community.

The community has no ownership of the corporation.

Board Chair Sabrina Saunders said the Economic Development Trust is independent of any of the other boards of the corporation and elected band council.

"That's really important," she said. "All of this is about community impact and community infrastructure, so all of the boards are answering to the community. But the development trust part is really about making sure the money is independent and decided where it's going according to the community plan."

The community plan lists various needs and plans required to make Six Nations a healthier place to be - economically, socially, spiritually, physically and culturally.

The community plan identifies needs and estimated funding required to improve education, roads and bridge maintenance, increased housing units and housing maintenance, improved emergency services, health care, recreation, and a host of other needs.

The entire community plan document is available online at www.sixnationsfuture.com.

To date, the economic development department, now the corporation, has negotiated around $130 million in green energy deals, which will be flowing into the community over the next 20 years.

"We're just in the first year of making the money," said Saunders, who is also the director of the Six Nations Library. "In about a month to two months, they're (the corporation) going to be making a call for proposals."

The Six Nations Library is seeking $13 million to replace the old, crumbling library on Chiefswood Road with a brand-new state-of-the-art library on Fourth Line Road.

Money from the green energy deals will finally start flowing to the community this year.

Jamieson said the first payment from the last five years of green energy negotiations should arrive within 120 days, with the first cheque coming from the Samsung solar farm project, he said.

"This group will use the community plan as its guiding document and say how is the money going to be used for the benefit of the long-term," said Jamieson. "It's not one-off decisions. The focus of this trust is to make 100 per cent allocations every year. It's going to disburse it as it gets it."

Jamieson became CEO and president by simply shifting his role from economic development department to the new corporation. All staff shifted laterally to the new corporation as well, he said.

"The only difference in my job is my title," he said, at the same salary he received before which was roughly around $90,000 per year.

Jamieson no longer reports to band council. He reports to the board of directors now.

All board members receive an honoraria of $150 per meeting.

Jamieson said there have been dozens of band council resolutions in favour of the dissolution of the former economic development department and supporting its transition to the corporation - but all of those resolutions were made in closed meetings.

Band Council still has the power to dismantle the advisory committee and the corporation, said Jamieson, and there is a spot on the advisory committee for the elected chief to sit as an ex-officio member.

The corporation will update band council quarterly on its activities.

Eventually, he said, the corporation will no longer be funded through AANDC and will instead be funded through own-source revenues. The corporation is currently receiving around $700,000 in annual operational funding from AANDC.

"We've been advised by AANDC that funding is discretionary. It's just a matter of time before it actually gets cut, hence the reason for us to get out and get ourselves in a position where we're not dependent on government funding and generate own-source funding to pay bills and grow."

Any negotiations the corporation undertakes are not open to community involvement until the team brings "term sheets" with proposed benefits to community meetings. Once final agreements are signed, those agreements are not made public.