That is the message that Jim Carbery, General Manager of the Fort McKay Group of Companies LP, brought to the Prince Albert Grand Council Community Economic Development Conference held November 14-16, 2006 at the Prince Albert Inn. Carbery was subbing for Chief Jim Boucher who was ill and could not attend. However, Carbery, with his Northern Ireland accent still intact after 43 years in Canada, provided an interesting picture. He has worked mostly in First Nations communities since arriving in Canada in 1963.

Carbery said that there is no straight answer for any one community to achieve economic success, as what may work for one group may not work for another. The Fort McKay First Nation and its Group of Companies have faced challenges along the way, but its strategies can be summed up in a few principles:

1) Embraces, rather than resist, partnerships with both your own community and the greater community.

2) It places value on entrepreneurship, believes in its own people and makes investments to support them.

3) And, it gives priority to preserving its history, culture and traditional way of life, and maintains its relationship with the land.

In 1986 the Band established the Fort McKay Group of Companies, which is fully owned and operated by the community and serves a number of corporate clients – the oilsands, pipelines, forestry industry and public sector.

Its partnerships are in the following sectors:
-Transportation
-Heavy equipment operations
-Labour
-Fuel and lube delivery
-Parcel delivery and warehousing, and
-Environmental services.
-The Group has many businesses:
-Fort McKay Office Services operates on the Syncrude site, offering such services as freight, mail delivery, and warehousing. It has grown to 42 employees from the original 12 in 3 years.
-Fort McKay Trucking offers fuel transportation services, and in 2005 delivered 85 million litres of fuel to its corporate customers.
-Fort McKay Environment provides such services as reclamation, tree planting, erosion control, and more.
-Fort McKay Transportation has provided safe transportation services for 23 years.
-Fort McKay Industrial Park leases lots to oilsands industries. Their park has 20 lots on 300 acres and owns a 16,000 square foot building with shop space.
-Muskeg Mountain LP provides 100-ton trucks to Albian Sands Energy. In the last four years they have become a “serious operator” in the heavy haul industry.
-Fort McKay General Contracting maintains roads and grounds on the Suncor site, and have recently hired 22 more people.
-Muskeg Distributors LP delivers 10 million litres of fuel per month to oilsands companies such as Albian, Shell Canada and North American Construction.

In 2005, the Group made $50 million in revenue with its 300 employees, 70 percent of whom are Aboriginal. Carbery said that in 2006 they expect to realize $75 million in revenue.

Carbery said that the Group “cannot find enough equipment operators at Fort McKay.” “People fly in from La Loche,” he said, and they are in the process of building camp facilities for their employees.

In addition to the Group of Companies, the band has formed a number of Joint Venture Partnership Companies as a method of learning from other companies who have already been successful in their field.

One advantage in joint venturing is that it brings the skill set from one company to another, giving both companies more knowledge and power. Carbery likens a joint venture to a marriage, but cautions that, “They’ve got to be careful who they get into bed with!”

He also stated that Aboriginal people within their companies “are put in positions of influence – they are not kept at the bottom of the hierarchy.”

One of the joint ventures is First North Catering, with Compass Group Canada (Beaver) Ltd., which services camps and community partners. It provides catering services at Suncor for 5000 people a day, but also provides food for wakes or weddings in the surrounding community.

They have five other joint ventures. Their joint venture with NORAMAC (North American Construction) covers a variety of work from pipelines to highways and from earthworks to underground utilities. Carbery says this joint venture “is going public” in January 2007.

The Fort McKay Group of Companies LP has 10 band members on its board of directors; the Chief and Council are automatically on the board for the length of their terms. They meet monthly and hire the General Manager (Carbery).

“Their goal is to set financial policy,” says Carbery, and Chief and Council are not involved in the day-to-day operations of the businesses.

The board sets up committees, and it is especially important with regard to audits. All cheques are signed by at least 2 board members, and the committee must answer questions about specific disbursements. Being an avid horseplayer and casino patron, Carbery said he wanted nothing to do with cheque signing authority.

As GM, he reports monthly to the board on the financial status and safety record of each company, and of any new business opportunities. Some time ago, two employees died on the job, and since then, the Group has instituted a policy whereby each employee is life insured a minimum of $75,000.

Carbery said that the quality of leadership at the local level is an important factor in the success of the Group, and that leadership is shared among many people, not just the Chief.

Leadership requires individuals with vision: “They want to take young people somewhere.” It also requires integrity – they must keep their word. Carbery credits long-time Chief Jim Boucher’s integrity for making the Group the success it is.

When the Group was formed in the 1980s, the question in the larger business community was, “Will they pay their bills?” They did.

As the GM, Carbery said that a condition of his working for the Group was that he would brook no political interference. “Business and politics don’t mix; when they do, things go wrong.” Leaders must understand that separation of business and politics if they are to succeed.

Carbery also provided a few more words of advice:
-Leaders must work to open the doors for business.
-Leaders must work with all segments of the community, including youth, Elders, women, the addicted, and so on.
-Leaders must support education and training.
-Leaders must trust each other.
-Leaders must want a brighter future for their communities.

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