Grandfather, father provide inspiration

Page 39

His determination in seeing his grandfather's and father's dream come to fruition has earned him a prestigious award.

Chief John Thunder of the Buffalo Point First Nation of Manitoba was one of the four CANDO 2000 Economic Development Recognition Award winners for his work in developing the Buffalo Point First Nation into a world class tourist destination.

"It is an honor to be chosen. I was nominated by Robert Campbell who works for Rural Economic Development Initiative which is a provincial program," said Thunder. "He has known about me and Buffalo Point because his father George Campbell was regional director general when my father was chief and just getting Buffalo Point started back in the seventies."

Buffalo Point was unoccupied for nearly 50 years due to flooding. It is located on the southeastern tip of Manitoba on Lake of the Woods, which is one of the largest lakes in the province. In 1967, the provincial government offered $72,500 for 1,000 acres of land.

"It got very close but then my father and grandfather put a stop to the sale." They took it upon themselves to start the developments.

"By 1974 that master plan was finalized and the idea was that the community would implement it themselves and that it would take 20 years to do this."

Thunder was 22 years old when he came home from school in 1983 and began to take a serious interest in helping his father develop Buffalo Point.

"I guess I kind of grew up with it. My father was chief so I watched him and saw what he was doing and I just kind of evolved into it," said Thunder. "When I came back from school the marina had been dredged out but it was in its infancy and there was one set of docks there and a small little building for a bait shop. There wasn't too much established on the infrastructure side of things."

Thunder put his education to use and became a band councillor and after 15 years of sitting in council became chief in 1997.

"I was taking the lands management course through the department of Indian Affairs and I took a real estate course. I took a bunch of other courses with conflict resolution negotiations, contract administration, environmental assessments," said Thunder. "I even took a business course with the Federal Business Development Bank. There were quite a number of courses through the years that I was taking and it was all pertaining to exactly what it is that we are doing here at Buffalo Point today."

Today Buffalo Point, on average, generates a couple of million dollars a year and with the addition of a golf course, hotel, and health spa revenues that is expected to jump to about $7 million a year, explained Thunder.

The resort has 245 fully developed cottage sites, 466 fully serviced lots, 195 serviced RV camp sites, a marina with 350 docks, 14 rental cabins, convenience store, gas station, restaurant and lounge, government centre, police station, and a cultural centre.

"Two years ago we did a road count on opening day of fishing season which is the middle of May to the September long weekend," said Thunder. "There was a count of 10,000 vehicles. It is quite substantial, like with our marina and campground, we will find all of our docks full and then in June, which is prime-time fishing season, there will be close to 500 boats. We have the 350 docks and another150 boats will come into the harbor just to launch their boats and go out fishing for the day. So it is pretty amazing and then there are 195 RV campground sites and there again they are all full and we have waiting lists for more RV sites. So you can see the significance of the amount of people that do come into Buffalo Point."

Although Thunder is pleased with the fishing component of the resort, he is looking forward to the finished development of the golf course and hotel and spa to take the pressure off of the fishing, he explained.

"The blueprints are being done right now and we have a partnership with a northern band, the York Factory First Nation," sai Thunder. "They have a considerable amount of money that they want to invest, but because they are northern, isolated and remote, they don't really have a lot of opportunity to invest in their community. They have done pretty much what they can do there, so now they are looking for outside investment and they are partnering up to invest in the hotel and golf course. So they are going to take 40 per cent of the business in the hotel, spa, and golf course."

There are also gaming opportunities that both York Factory and Buffalo Point are negotiating with the provincial government.

"I think in the end it is best for both communities because we not only get revenues from this operation but we will also continue to receive revenues from the casinos once they are up and running as well," said Thunder. "Instead of just focusing on one aspect, we are actually taking the opportunity to capture both."

As Buffalo Point plans for future developments they cautiously proceed while respecting the natural surroundings and habitat, explained Thunder.

"I guess right from the start when we developed this place our priority was to protect the wilderness, the wildlife and to try and incorporate our facilities into the surroundings," said Thunder. "Instead of taking and doing what most people do where they just go in and take everything out and build and replace with artificial plants and shrubbery, landscaping that doesn't pertain to the surroundings. We have basically incorporated all of our developments into the setting so it has always been done environmentally sensitive."

The wildlife that inhabits Buffalo Point is tame and approachable, which is appreciated by visitors to the resort, explained Thunder.

"You can feed the deer and the wildlife has become used to what we are doing. I think a lot of that pertains to the fact that instead of coming in here and building this thing over night and basically chasing everything away or scaring everything out of here, they have adapted toit because it has been something that has been done over 22 years," said Thunder. "But not only the wildlife but the people themselves have had the opportunity to adapt and change because it didn't happen so fast."

Members of the Buffalo Point First Nation have gradually been moving back onto the reserve since the development of the resort. There are currently 54 band members living on the reserve and 86 living off, with more members expressing an interest in moving back.

"It's an ongoing process. We have been gradually been getting to the point where more and more houses are being developed. We've utilized our housing and capital dollars but because we are a small band it is pretty insignificant, so we have subsidized our housing program through our developments," said Thunder. "We have over the years been developing them as well, but it is kind of a Catch-22 because we can't really go out and build homes just for the sake of people moving back without the jobs being there. So we have to walk a fine line as to co-ordinating the housing program with job creation."

Thunder receives his inspiration as he continues to develop Buffalo Point from his father's and grandfather's original dream of seeing the resort finished, he explained.

"The driving force behind it is that my father and grandfather always knew that Buffalo Point had huge opportunities for tourist development." said Thunder. "In 1976, my dad borrowed some money personally and built one mile of road towards the peninsula across the swamp and my grandfather would go with my father and drive to the end of this one mile road and look across to the peninsula to Buffalo Point. So my grandfather got to see that first mile of road leading up to Buffalo Point, but the following year he passed away and my dad would always tell how he wished grandpa would have lived long enough to see the road into Buffalo Point. It's because of that, that I have always said that I would see that the master plan that he develope be finalized before he passes away."