L-R: Owen Fitzgerald and Dan Christmas

This partnership between communities and industry will provide important jobs and experience and help our communities build capacity.

About Unama’ki EBO

The five First Nation communities in Cape Breton, Unama’ki in the Mi’kmaq language (pronounced Una Mauki), have formed a unique economic partnership and established a collaborative approach to economic development that is becoming recognized across Canada. They recognized the importance of taking a business approach to pursuing economic opportunities and the importance of partnering with business and governments. This office is the result.

In the 20th century there were thousands working in the Cape Breton coal mines and the Sydney steel mill. The Mi’kmaq did not participate in this industrial revolution. But today, they are proud to be part of efforts to build a new economy in Cape Breton.

In 2007 the Unama’ki communities established the Unama’ki Economic Benefits Steering Committee. This committee is made up of two to three representatives from each of the five Cape Breton First Nation communities. Dan Christmas of Membertou and Tracy Menge of Eskasoni First Nation are co-chairs of the Steering Committee. The goal of this committee is to maximize the near-term economic benefits for Unama’ki communities, meaning jobs and contracts. The steering committee is also focused on expanding the long-term expertise and economic capacity of Unama’ki communities and businesses. The immediate opportunity that drove this initiative was the $400 Million Sydney Tar Ponds Cleanup Project.

The Unama’ki Economic Benefits Steering Committee recognized that over the years there were several major projects where agreements called for Aboriginal involvement, but seldom would these agreements and expressions of intent result in significant Aboriginal participation. The committee recognized that there was need of an office with strong business experience to do follow-up and make sure good intent becomes reality. They developed a proposal to establish an office to support their economic development efforts. The Unama’ki Economic Benefits Office opened in Membertou in July, 2007 with one staff person, Cape Breton businessperson, Owen Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was also president of the Sydney and Area Chamber of Commerce. Today Fitzgerald is the Executive Director of the Unama’ki Economic Benefits Office and the office has a staff of seven.

Tar Ponds
The Tar Ponds Cleanup project was the immediate opportunity. After years of planning and negotiation, in October 2008, the Unama’ki communities concluded an agreement for the first Nova Scotia Aboriginal set-asides, totaling over $19 million for work on the Tar Ponds Cleanup project which should be completed by 2014.

This long-term commitment allows the Unama'ki communities, through the Unama’ki Economic Benefits Office, to plan and train for these opportunities. In March 2009, the result of early success by First Nation companies working on the Tar Ponds cleanup, the most significant contract to date in the $400 million cleanup project was awarded to a Unama’ki company, MB2 Construction. This contract has a value of $37.6 million.

This contract is in addition to the $19 million in Aboriginal set asides and it is important to note that this $37 million contract was not a set-aside and was won by an Aboriginal company in a bidding process that was open to any construction company. This is real success!

Pursuing New Opportunities
This story is much more than a story of the Tar Ponds. The success at the Tar Ponds has allowed the Unama’ki communities to build capacity and its businesses to gain valuable experience. It has also allowed the Unama’ki Economic Benefits Office to now broaden it horizons and pursue new economic opportunities, especially those associated with port development and energy and environmental sustainability.

The Unama’ki Economic Benefits Office has established a partnership with the key stakeholders involved in the aggressive development plan for the Port of Sydney. This plan could soon see a world class container terminal in the Port of Sydney and a major ship building facility.

The Unama’ki Economic Benefits Office is exploring opportunities in the area of energy and environmental sustainability. Energy and environmental sustainability are of huge importance to the whole world, making it a great opportunity, especially with our local experience with environmental remediation related to the Tar Ponds and coal mines. Cape Breton also has a huge energy reserve. The immediate opportunity is the huge coal reserves under the coastline of Cape Breton. Experts say there are 150 Billion tons of coal under the shoreline of Cape Breton. They also claim that this is a bigger energy reserve than the Alberta Tar Sands and the sixth largest energy reserve in the world.

We hope to explore innovative ways to extract the energy from this coal, not by conventional mining, but by mining the energy, in a way that turns one of the dirtiest energy sources, into one of the cleanest energy sources. The Unama’ki Economic Benefits Office is partnering with the new Centre for Sustainability in Energy and the Environment at Cape Breton University. We see this centre as a major driver of commercialization in the green economy and the Unama’ki communities want to be part of this research and commercialization. This also addresses another priority of the Unama’ki Economic Benefits Steering committee. The steering committee is seeking ways to engage more young Aboriginals in the field of Science and engineering.

The Economic Benefits Office has also recently established partnerships with EMERA Utility services, a subsidiary of Emera Inc., the largest utility services contractor in Atlantic Canada. In 2010 NewPage Paper Mill in Port Hawkesbury also partnered with the Unama’ki Economic Benefits Office. Both these partners are working with the Economic Benefits Office to train local Aboriginals to meet their need for skilled workers. Local engineering firms and construction companies have also partnered with the Unama’ki Economic Benefits Office to train local Aboriginals to address an industry need for civil tech workers. In addition to the success at the Sydney Tar Ponds Cleanup project, these are significant and tangible measures of success, success that is delivering jobs.

Aboriginals enjoy a position of strategic advantage in filling the shortage of skilled trades people within the regional economy. Island First Nations are bracing for a “demographic tsunami” of young people who will be driving economic growth on and off reserves in years ahead. More than half of the population of the islands First Nation communities is under the age of 25 and with the proper training, they will help address the growing shortage of skilled trades people.

The Steering Committee recognized the importance of education and training to their long-term economic success. The Tar Ponds project presented an opportunity for the Unama’ki Economic Benefits Office to submit a detailed long-term training proposal for the Unama’ki communities. In July 2008 HRSDC approved the office for a four year, $4.3 million training program, referred to as the Unama’ki ASEP Training Project. The Unama’ki Economic Benefits Office manages this ASEP training program.

What makes this training program unique is that the Economic Benefits Office has partnered with industry and all training is tied to industry needs. During the first year of the ASEP training program the Economic Benefits Office offered a “Foundations Training program” to prepare people for entering or re-entering the workforce, a training program for “Women in the Trades” as well as the “BEAHR Environmental training program”. These programs are delivered by the Nova Scotia Community College, Strait Campus and Marconi Campus and several programs are delivered in Unama’ki communities. Most training involves on the job training as well, providing valuable work experience. Alex Paul of Membertou is the Director in charge of the Unama’ki ASEP Training program.

So it can more effectively pursue these new economic opportunities, the Economic Benefits Office is in the process of building its own internal capacity. In 2009 the Unama’ki Economic Benefits Office opened satellite offices in Eskasoni at the Sara Denny Cultural Centre and one at the Wagmatcook Community Centre, downstairs. It also hired Laura Prosper of Eskasoni as Administrative Assistant for the Benefits Office. The Economic Benefits Office also now has a toll free phone number- 1 (877) 562-9480.

Alyssia Jeddore of Eskasoni was hired in 2009 to be the “Job Coach Officer” and she knows first hand the importance of education and support to succeed in these new economic times, both support when in training and support when beginning a new job. Alyssia is a recent student herself, having completed a science degree from Cape Breton University (CBU) and her education degree from St. F.X. University.

A second major objective of Alyssia is to encourage more Mi’kmaq young people to study sciences in university and support the Mi’kmaq students that are now studying at CBU. There are more and more Mi’kmaq students going to university, but very few are entering science programs. The Unama’ki Economic Benefits Steering Committee has made this one of its priorities.

Because of the success of the Unama’ki Economic Benefits Office and its ASEP Training program, in 2009 the Federal government, HRSDC, doubled the yearly funding for this training program and this lead to the hiring of more staff. Kim Milley was hired to be Training Coordinator and Maxine Stevens is the Training Support Officer.

Success of the Unama’ki Economic Benefits Office, is due to its strong business approach to economic development, strong engagement of the communities in its steering committee, strong communication, effective partnering efforts with government and industry and a strong training program that is tied to industry needs.

The local First Nation communities are now considered an integral part of the local economy and the local business community. This is demonstrated by the September induction of Chief Terry Paul into the Cape Breton Business Hall of Fame.

Because of the growing success of the Unama’ki Economic Benefits Office, in June 2010 it moved into new offices in the new Membertou Business Centre on Churchill Drive.

This is just the beginning!