Aboriginal Co-operatives in Canada - Centre for the Study of Co ...

~ C A S E S T U D I E SQ. What general advice would you give to any group interested in developing a credit union?A. You must be meeting a defined need. Rely on knowledgeable persons to help. Develop aplan of action. Understand client needs. Negotiate around obstacles. Use political strategies.Conduct business in a professional manner. Communicate plans and ideas to all those involved.Find out what the competition is doing; securing their help is even better. Beaccountable.Q. What kind of further assistance would you like to have from government?A. It is not so much further assistance that the credit union needs. However, government rulesthat impede its operations services should be reviewed every so often. First Nations are uniqueidentities in Ontario and Canada and so appropriate consideration should be given to theirequally unique needs. This suggestion is made in the knowledge that the governments, bothfederal and provincial, seem to limit the potential of First Nations and want to keep them in astate of poverty. The government changes rules and adopts policies that will advance the needsof Canadians but will seldom do the same for First Nations.Several years ago the government formed the National Aboriginal Financing Task Forceand the report of the task force, titled The Promise of the Future, was published on 15 April1996. This report contains many recommendations on achieving economic self-sufficiencythrough access to capital. However, not too much has improved since the report was issued.The Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (volume 2, chapter 5) alsocontains excellent recommendations on economic development, but one has to wonder whenthese recommendations will be put into play. Regulatory provisions are what prevent FirstNations people from advancing in the way they want, economically and socially.For example, the ANCU should appropriately be licensed or chartered by the First Nationsor the Anishinabek Nation. Then, truly, we would be able to develop a financial institution thataddresses our unique needs.There are many connected needs that should be under the control of the First Nations suchas licensing of businesses, free trade with other aboriginal groups, land use and management,etc.If the government really wanted to facilitate the advancement of First Nations, not only inthe business and financial sector, but in all areas, it can quickly do so. As the initial tool foradvancement, the Indian Act can be amended fairly easily and quickly to accelerate the advancementof the First Nations. After all, it was amended fairly easily and quickly to makeCanada look good when it was seen by the world to be discriminating against First Nationswomen who married non-Indians and so lost their status.~ 335