Six Nations Public library - Digital Archive

"Economic Development Corporation forms behind closed doors", p. 2

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Corporation forms band council kept out of the business (Continued from page 2) 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 Forth 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.

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