CCDF confident study will show need for procurement department

A booming potash industry is having little impact on Métis entrepreneurs and workers.

The Clarence Campeau Development Fund is hoping to turn that around.

“We’re challenging industry, particularly the potash industry, to really step outside of their comfort zone, to start thinking outside of the box when talking and approaching the Métis,” said Steve Danners, director of the Métis Energy and Resource Development project, which is delivered by CCDF.

CCDF officials are in talks with Aboriginal and Northern Affairs Canada to obtain federal funding to help with a report that would prove a fulltime procurement department is needed. CCDF would administer the new department.

“Procurement is a really hot topic in the province of Saskatchewan right now. (Procurement) is complicated, extremely comprehensive and convoluted,” said Danners.
The nature of what is required – whether for federal procurement, provincial procurement or private industry procurement – leaves many Métis out in the cold, unable to access $20 billion to $30 billion the mining industry alone has to offer in expansion and new projects.

If the federal funding comes through for the report, Danners is confident the findings will be what the CCDF is claiming: “A lot of our Métis contractors, in our opinion, don’t have fair access to contracts. I think a lot of our contractors and entrepreneurs simply give up. They don’t understand the process, don’t understand what’s involved here and (they’re) sort of taking (themselves) right out of access to billions of dollars worth of contracts here.”

 A full time department would help Métis entrepreneurs in the procurement process and help them access a market that keeps expanding in Saskatchewan. CCDF would need to apply to ANAC for funding for the department.

While CCDF officials work on acquiring funding for the report, Danners is working with Métis individuals, partners, self-identified communities and locals in helping them access dollars for energy and resource sector-specific funding.

In the year and a half that the Métis Energy and Resource Development Project has been in operation, 20 to 30 projects have been brought forward. At this point, though, only five are in the process of being approved for a total of $2.6 million. Danners expects one to receive approval in the next month. The four remaining projects are in various stages of business and pre-business planning. Two projects deal with potash mining and the other three involve oil and gas. The other projects were turned down for a variety of reasons including not fitting MERP criteria, asking for too much funding or not enough funding, or bad credit.

There is $6 million to be awarded, $5 million from the federal government through the Major Resource and Energy Development Initiative and $1 million from CCFD. MERP is a three-year pilot project. The federal government is in the process of unveiling a new MRED-funded program in Manitoba, with programs in Ontario, British Columbia and New Brunswick also in the wings.
With dollars successfully being delivered through MERP, Danners hopes that is just the first stage of Métis involvement in the energy and resource industry in Saskatchewan.
CCFD is pushing industry to develop Métis-specific procurement policies, Métis-specific hiring policies, and Métis-specific set asides in projects.
“These are issues important to the Métis and issues that benefit not only Métis but also all people of Saskatchewan.  Industry has not done a good job in the past addressing these issues and as a result there is a low percentage of Métis employees involved with energy and resource, especially mining,” said Danners.
CCFD was created in an agreement between Métis Nation-Saskatchewan and the provincial government. CCFD is an affiliate of the MNS but is an autonomous agency.