Canadians feel an urgent need for change in our country’s relationship with aboriginal peoples. That much is clear. What kinds of change can we agree on? Canada’s businesspeople, aboriginal peoples and non-aboriginal people, have some suggestions that take us forward into a more collaborative and wealth-creating era in the relations between our peoples and organizations.
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Canada’s uranium exploration and mining companies, and the communities they work with, provide many more concrete examples of business practices that grow everyone’s prosperity. Many of the nuclear industry’s projects are situated in or around aboriginal communities. Years of investment in good community engagement has been essential to realize these opportunities.
Member companies of the Canadian Nuclear Association create hundreds of long-term, meaningful jobs that let northerners and aboriginal peoples make a living close to home. They train and educate their workers. They fund scholarships. They align and partner with local governments and community organizations, often on a person-to-person level, to make the most of limited infrastructure and local capacity.
And most importantly, Canada’s uranium exploration and mining companies, and other CNA members, buy products and services from aboriginal-owned businesses—to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars per year. This boosts the economic benefits to northern and aboriginal communities. And it helps aboriginal people make the move from employee to owner, which is a crucial step in sustained economic development.
The CCAB will recognize key contributions to advancing the well-being of aboriginal people at our 15th Annual Toronto Gala on Feb. 5, where the keynote speaker will be Duncan Hawthorne, president and CEO of Bruce Power, Canada’s largest independent power producer and the operator of the world’s largest nuclear generating facility.
Canada’s nuclear industry offers great models for building strong and lasting bridges between aboriginal people and Canadian society. The CCAB invites all Canadian businesses to join the dialogue.
Read more at Business can bridge the gap for Canada’s aboriginal peoples: Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business
Economic prosperity at the expense of their health–is this a way to bridge the gap? It is like a deja vu; economically struggling areas are ushered to settle in the nuclear business.