Canada outlines which Indigenous businesses benefit from $5M funding in the North

A press release from the department in charge of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency said the money ‘will create good, local jobs in Indigenous communities.’ (CBC)
The federal government has announced how $5 million in federal funding from its regional fund for Indigenous business in the North is being spent.

The funding, which a spokesperson said is part of Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency’s existing budget, benefits 11 projects across the territories.

A press release from the department in charge of the agency said the funding “will create good, local jobs in Indigenous communities.”

The announcement was attributed to Yukon MP Larry Bagnell, parliamentary secretary for Minister Melanie Joly, who is in charge of the development agency.

Some of the projects were awarded last year, like more than $1.6 million that the agency spent on Iqaluit’s water and sewer infrastructure in Nunavut, and $1.2 million on improvements to the Minto Resort in Yukon.

The release also announces a $908,635 investment into the cleanup of Giant Mine. Det’on Cho Management will develop the Vee Lake quarry as a source of raw material for the cleanup and use it as a training ground for new jobs in N’dilo.

A study on the impacts of the Nunavut commercial fishing industry, an Indigenous Leaders economic forum, a tourism strategy for the Sahtu region and a plan for a “tourism, cultural and business incubator” in Dettah are also among the projects getting funded.

The announcement came on the U.N. International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, which, in a statement, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called “a time to remember and appreciate the contributions [Indigenous people] have made in forming the nations we know today, and recommit ourselves to recognizing and protecting their rights.”

Related stories from around the North:

Canada: Canada’s federal minister supports giving Northwest Territory a seat on oilsands oversight committee, CBC News

Finland: Miners hunting for metals to battery cars threaten Finland’s Sámi reindeer herders’ homeland, The Independent Barents Observer

Norway: The Arctic railway – Building a future or destroying a culture?, Eye on the Arctic

Russia: Russian Indigenous groups call on Elon Musk to boycott company behind Arctic environmental disasters, The Independent Barents Observer

Sweden: Sami in Sweden start work on structure of Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Eye on the Arctic

CBC News

For more news from Canada visit CBC News.

2 thoughts on “Canada outlines which Indigenous businesses benefit from $5M funding in the North

  • Sunday, January 10, 2021 at 16:17
    Permalink

    Don’t think indigenous in Greenland are as greedy as the Canadian counterpart. They need these mines to be developed so that they can become an independent country. The environment study that took so much time passed last Fall. Wonder if this professor has everfonelobbywork for law firms that represented Canadian indigenous groups.

    Reply
    • Saturday, January 23, 2021 at 08:27
      Permalink

      We don’t need those kind of mining to be independent, and we don’t see them as a development. It is just our government who think like that. I can’t call independence by opening uraniumminings here in our country it will simply just mean becomming independece from foreners mining industries with hazardous pullotion and contamination of our planet. Those study you called was called as a officework by DCE and GN. They never study us people who is living just 6 km from the planned mining. And the majourity og habitats in Narsaq are againt the mining plan. It is not for fun they call the mountan as “Ilimmaasaq complex”

      Reply
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