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The Chronicle Herald • Sponsored Content
Tuesday, June 22, 2021
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Collaboration and community Securing intergenerational prosperity for Indigenous communities
Photos contributed by Membertou MINA ATIA, COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR, HALIFAX CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
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une is National Indigenous History Month and we get to celebrate the cultures and contributions of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples in Canada. It’s an opportunity to honour the history, heritage and diversity of Indigenous Peoples in Canada. It’s also a time for learning, appreciating and acknowledging their contributions. Across Canada, Indigenous communities showcase their strengths and impact on the national economy. The Clearwater Seafoods acquisition was a transformational deal for the Indigenous communities and economies. The Mi’kmaq are rooted in traditional values of fishing that have been sustaining their communities for thousands of years. The milestone acquisition not only generates economic benefits for Indigenous people but also returns them to their traditions in a modern way. With this purchase, they gain access to the offshore fishery for the benefit of the next seven Indigenous generations, as is customary in Mi’kmaq culture. This long-term win was an ode of intergenerational prosperity dedicated to the community. “Our 50 per cent ownership in Clearwater Seafoods is an example of the opportunities that exist and these opportunities provide long-term sustainability and financial diversity for our communities,” says Chief Terrance Paul, Chief and CEO of Membertou, Mi’kmaq community located on Unama’ki – Cape Breton Island. The Mi’kmaq Coalition (50 per cent owners of Clearwater) is working to ensure Indigenous participation in the fishery industry. “Now that we are owners, we are working alongside the dynamic team at Clearwater Seafoods to create programming and practices that will help more Mi’kmaq fishers and employees secure meaningful employment with the
company,” says Chief Paul. Having been called the singlelargest investment made by an Indigenous group in Canada, the deal is valued at $1 billion. “Clearwater has been very committed to this endeavour and I am pleased to say that an Indigenous employment adviser has been hired and will be working daily to ensure participation within the fishery,” says Chief Paul. “And we’re looking forward to a day, hopefully soon, where deals like this are commonplace within our industry and beyond.” Similar activities are happening in the Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation community, located in Antigonish County, where the Bayside Development Corporation is developing partnerships for growth within their retail services and longhaul trucking. Working on major partnerships and joint ventures, Bayside is partaking in the Pieridae-Goldboro LNG project. “For us, this project is right in the corridor of our community,” says Rose Paul, CEO of Bayside Development Corporation. It’s the Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation’s business arm managing the development of reserve lands on the south side of the Trans-Canada Highway 104 in Antigonish. “There’s a lot of opportunity for us to be the active players at the table to expand any further business development, partnerships and growth for our local economy.” Through the Goldboro LNG facility, Pieridae Energy will build and operate a terminal for the liquefaction, storage and loading of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to world markets. This project will bring cleaner natural gas and jobs across the region. Cleaner natural gas will play a large role in decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. Equally as important, the project supports Indigenous Peoples reconciliation through partnerships with the Nova Scotia Mi’kmaq. The goal is to build a $720-million workforce lodge to house 5,000 workers, who will build the LNG
facility. “This involves not just jobs, but also stakeholders working with some very wonderful partners to collaborate and work together on developing not only capacity and jobs, but also wealth,” says Paul. This development is just one of many major projects Bayside Development Corporation is working on to support its members. The project contributes to the implementation and execution of Bayside’s five-year plan focused on furthering prosperous partnerships, where executive meetings held with big players have Indigenous representation at the table. Not only that, but it also offers big-initiative opportunities, such as trade and export, expanding the land base further and propelling business development for generations to come. “We are strategically expanding our land base on a highway and positioning ourselves to be more diverse and open to further opportunities,” says Paul. “It’s not just to build businesses but to create sustainable businesses and have a very strong workforce because we need our people to run our business.” “We will be working with Chief Paul’s community. The Clearwater development is a pretty huge opportunity and we are proud to be part of that major initiative.” The Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation community works with national partners, such as the First Nations Finance Authority and the First Nations Financial Management Board, to secure the success of these types of large projects. “We’re now in the process of developing our own land codes, removing ourselves from reporting to sections of the Indian Act through the First Nations Land Management,” says Paul. “It’s something I’ve been really passionate about.” The First Nations Land Management enables First Nations to opt out of 40 sections of the Indian Act relating to land management. Afterwards,
they can develop their own laws about land use, the environment and natural resources. With these new land management authorities, First Nations can take advantage of many cultural and economic development opportunities. “We have to empower our people, promote more wealth generation and focus on poverty,” says Paul. “I’m a huge advocate for building our community around this kind of strength and resiliency.” The First Nations Tax Commission has also provided the community with tools to develop strong business and strong partners, as well as become a sovereign nation. These tools support them in working around the Indian Act. With these tools, First Nations are regaining their economy and creating opportunities for their communities, in their own membership, but also overall in Atlantic Canada. Their years of hard work and dedication are paying off as they create an economic base that will last for generations. “We’re seeing the positive outcome of those years of work starting to realize itself and that’s because of multiple factors, such as reconciliation and the leadership of First Nations playing a big role,” says Shayne McDonald, Former Director of Justice, Miawpukek First Nation and new Director of Netukulimk Fisheries Ltd. “I also think just learning over time that the road to economic growth and success takes dedication and time.” A First Nation reserve located at the mouth of the Conne River on the south coast of Newfoundland, Miawpukek has a growing demographic population and is politically, administratively and economically stable. The community offers a great partnership for mainstream industries across different sectors — fishing, oil and gas and/or mining — to move forward on various initiatives for the mutual benefit of all parties involved. “We have good capacity and access to training and to equip our members for employment in the local, regional and national labour markets,” says McDonald. “With that comes strength, as we’ve seen multiple partnerships and relationships established over the past several years.” Miawpukek First Nation was also a part of the Clearwater deal and is thrilled to see it come through. It’s one of two main projects the community has been working on. It also recently partnered with Horizon Maritime, an offshore supply and service company with offices based in Halifax and St John’s. “With respect to Horizon’s desire to have diversity and inclusion in their workforce, we have many members employed as seafarers on their offshore supply vessels,” says McDonald.
“The relationship and mutual respect developing resulted in this partnership.” A new corporate entity was established as a result, known as the Miawpukek Horizon Maritime Services Ltd., which is 51 per cent owned by Miawpukek. The company’s goal is to build a service offering in the marine-service supply sector, not only including the offshore but also near shore and coastal services in a broad range of areas. The initiative is seeing early success in receiving contracts with the Government of Canada. “We’re quite delighted with this initiative and that relationship with the owners of Horizon Maritime,” says McDonald. “It’s making inroads in different sectors, creating employment opportunities for our membership and building a pathway to return on investment that will see revenue flow back to the community.” “It all works towards getting to a stage where we’re selfsufficient and can rely on our own source of revenue for our community governance and expenses, as opposed to relying in part on government programs and services.” First Nations communities across Canada are undergoing significant change and significant development with respect to businesses and partnership. And they are offering opportunities for the mutual benefit of both the Indigenous community and partners from the business community. “My advice is, if you’re looking for a partner, you need to do your due diligence and look for a good fit and characteristics that align with your corporate values and your corporate social responsibility,” says McDonald. “I got no doubt that there’s a First Nation or an Indigenous entity out there that will align quite well with whatever a company may be looking for in a partner.” “And I would strongly encourage making contacts with the Indigenous leaders. Once that’s done, you will see improvements and building upon the success that we’re already seeing not only in the Atlantic region, but across Canada.” Growth and prosperity are on the horizon for many First Nations communities. They are moving forward across Canada and Atlantic Canada, while poised to make a significant difference. Their creating of economic and business opportunities will continue to support their communities for many generations to come. “As our Chief Misel Joe said many, many times in the context of Miawpukek First Nation being situated in Newfoundland,” says McDonald, “when we do good and when we have success, Newfoundland does good and has success and the benefits transcend our reserved community to benefit our province and Canada as a whole.”
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Sponsored Content • The Chronicle Herald
Tuesday, June 22, 2021
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Achieving accessibility and inclusion Thinking outside of the wheelchair sign MINA ATIA, COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR, HALIFAX CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
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ccessibility is as diverse as the range of human differences. The concept of being accessible is not reserved for people with assistive mobility devices: it’s much broader. Once this is understood, we, as a society, can make meaningful changes in becoming truly inclusive. Persons with disabilities have diverse needs when trying to access all facets of their everyday life. That means we need to think beyond wheelchair signs and deeper about what they attempt to symbolize. “There is a tendency for most people to think when we talk disability that it has to do with mobility. Even the symbol on door openers is a wheelchair; we all understand what it means, but it really is much bigger than that,” says Rosalind Penfound, Accessibility Advisory Board Chair for the Department of Justice. “It’s about people who have visual impairments, blind, deaf and hearing impaired and neurodivergent folks. When you think about all these disabilities, you start to understand how diverse accessibility really is.” “Accessibility is an individualized ability to access, directly or indirectly, environments, services, products and employment,” says Tanya Sieliakus, Founder and CEO of HR pros Inc. Thinking this broadly and inclusively about accessibility pushes the boundaries of building ramps or setting up automatic
“Everyone faces barriers, hardships and difficulties in one time or another,” says Dawn Stegen, Interim Executive Director, Accessibility Directorate, Department of Justice. “These barriers are related to the already built environment, but there are those related to attitude, stereotyping and stigma.” “They infected us and that’s really where the education and the awareness is very important. And it’s often not the first place to start, but it’s the place where the journey begins,” says Stegen. Experts recommend meaningful education and osmosis as the first steps. From a foundational approach, education addresses issues such as bias and stigma. At the same time, it teaches the importance of equalizing the playing field, including workplaces. It essentially teaches how to be welcoming of everyone. “Osmosis means exposing people to different cultures, types of humans and accessibility and accommodation requirements, because that’s how we’re going to remove the stigma,” says Tova Sherman, CEO of reachAbility Association and author of Win, Win, Win! The 18 Inclusion-isms You Need to Become a Disability Confident Employer. Most employers realize the importance of inclusion and diversifying their culture because, financially, it has clear benefits. That includes creative problemsolving skills, fewer sick days taken, more ideas brought to the table and endless opportunities for marginalized people with pressing issues to be included in
washroom doors to meet certain widespread accessibility standards. It’s about celebrating and valuing persons with disabilities. It’s about enabling them to fully participate in all parts of society. “I think, in business, too often the discussion around accessibility is a function of pain; whether it be labour shortage, an inability to hire qualified people, public scrutiny or persons with disabilities being physically unable to enter a building or room,” says Sieliakus. “What we need instead is a radical change in conversation! We really need to start talking about disability in terms of inclusion.” SHATTERING STEREOTYPICAL ATTITUDES Living with a neurological condition for more than 18 years, Sieliakus only claimed her disability recently. “Disclosure of my condition early on cost me my job, left me with chronic depression and nearly destroyed me,” she says. Finding her courage and publicly claiming her disability has allowed Sieliakus to have open and honest discussions, breaking down stereotypes that otherwise would have gone unexplored. “Disability is an uncomfortable topic for many and as long as disability remains an uncomfortable topic, perhaps the greatest barrier is the, often unspoken, judgment people pass about people with disabilities,” says Sieliakus. “Judgment such as not being good enough, being less than, being too much, more than, etc.”
Photos contributed by reachAbility
the conversation. “We need to get a conversation going; we need to start talking about the unique things people with disabilities bring to the table, start demystifying disability and stop stereotyping people with disabilities,” says Sieliakus. CHANGING UNFOUNDED ASSUMPTIONS Many jobs, previously assumed impossible to accomplish from home, were carried out from home over this past year due to pandemic restrictions. This now-rectified assumption used to prevent some people with disabilities from being able to apply for and get those jobs. “Assumptions and attitudes like these have created situations where businesses are not as welcoming,” says Penfound. “We’re learning as we go along and I think that kind of revelation, as attitudes shift and
we start understanding, is wonderful.” “Disability as a whole has been treated as an add on, as another item HR has to deal with,” says Sherman, who shares key implementation principles in her book, ensuring businesses are on the path to profit and guiding leaders, co-workers and even customers toward inclusion. “It is my belief that businesses need to go back to their values and ensure diversity is visible, so the staff and management from top down know it’s part of their core responsibility and role in the office.” HR pros Inc. is a great example of how the human resources field can make radical changes to inclusive hiring. “We are committed to assisting our clients in building inclusive workplaces and HR systems CONTINUED ON A9
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The Chronicle Herald • Sponsored Content
Tuesday, June 22, 2021
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that value all persons,” says Sieliakus, a certified Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) trainer who has been delivering DEI training and programming for more than 20 years in Canada, the United States and Europe. And because volunteerism and corporate citizenship are pillars of HR pros Inc., the organization volunteers on a number of not-for-profit boards, such as TEAM Work Cooperative, specifically servicing people with disabilities. FOCUSING ON INCLUSIVE SOLUTIONS “Inclusion is not something ‘nice to do’ or a mere concept or set of obligations. Rather, inclusion is a principle that enriches our lives,” says Sieliakus. “So, step one is to get started!” A high percentage of Nova Scotians are aware of the need to do better when it comes to accessibility — and they have a very positive view of that need, according to the 2021 Atlantic Quarterly Omnibus Survey. The randomized public opinion telephone survey of Nova Scotians aged 18 and older showed more than half of Nova Scotians are interacting with someone with a disability. And with 30 per cent of Nova Scotians having
a disability, these results show a significant opportunity for businesses to work with their consumers and potential employees. “It’s a great opportunity for that market and potential growth to make an investment in being accessible,” says Stegen. “If I’m close to someone who cannot get in or doesn’t feel welcomed in a place of business, then I won’t be going to that place of business myself.” “You need to be thinking beyond the 30 per cent. Focus on its potential impact and the reaction of 80 per cent of Nova Scotians if you’re not a welcoming, accessible place of business.” Businesses in Nova Scotia have access to resources to help them identify barriers in their business and employment practices. Leveraging these resources, while creating business strategies to overcome barriers, should be an integral part of any business planning for full accessibility. Toolkits, guides and webinars can help businesses, organizations, municipalities and public sector bodies comply with the Accessibility Act, ensuring everyone’s participation. For funding, the Business ACCESS-Ability Grant Program offers cost-shared grants to businesses for accessibility related improvements. They’re intended to improve overall accessibility and create welcoming
commercial environments that persons with disabilities can access for business, as well as employment opportunities. “We know the world is not going to change overnight and all kinds of existing buildings were built in an era when we didn’t think about accessibility,” says Penfound. “But we also know there are plans that can be made to retrofit those buildings and, most importantly, as new work happens, these plans are built in like universal design.” Similar to when business communities are thinking about active transportation on their main streets, cyclists and pedestrians are brought in to be consulted. “Invite persons with disabilities in your community to be involved with your plans around accessibility,” says Stegen. “If you’re thinking about a change to the built environment, about your signage, wayfinding or devices that could be used to support persons with disabilities, bring them in and get their feedback. Let them experience the space and the ideas that you’re thinking of.” Next step is to get actively involved and engaged. By 2030, through the Accessibility Act, businesses will be required to comply with the standards currently being developed and to have official accessibility committees and plans.
We need to get a conversation going; we need to start talking about the unique things people with disabilities bring to the table, start demystifying disability and stop stereotyping people with disabilities.” — Tanya Sieliakus, Founder and CEO, HR pros Inc. To those businesses’ benefit, every business community already has an accessibility committee under the Accessibility Act and they are actively developing accessibility plans. There’s an opportunity to get engaged and be part of the solution. “We believe businesses don’t need to wait for the standards to be developed,” says Stegen.
“Starting to get involved and engaged before 2030 will be for all the right reasons and for human rights reasons.” “And lastly, focus on something that may be really exciting but could also be a gap area in your business. Take that on, start to become an expert in it, see the changes and get excited about that momentum.” Accessibility continues to be thought of in terms of a one-lane road. This specific lane — whether it be physical, mental, emotional or intellectual disability — is based on our own experiences when crossing paths with people living with disabilities. Like different individual attributes, accessibility needs to be recognized beyond the boundaries of disability and inclusion. Our community needs to be committed to education, awareness raising and business planning. These commitments don’t have to be accomplished all at once. Being proactive about your business’ capacity for inclusion is crucial in fostering a truly supportive and welcoming environment. “We can remove all the architectural barriers in the world, but the attitudinal ones remain,” says Sherman. “The number 1 step to be accessible is to tackle your attitudinal barriers, both consciously and unconsciously.”
WE ARE HIRING!
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SPECIALIST Help the Chamber build a diverse membership Cultivate relationships with underserved communities Identify new opportunities Recommend education and awareness support As this is a designated position, the Halifax Chamber will only accept applications from qualified individuals who identify as Indigenous, African Nova Scotian, a Person of Colour, and/or Person with a Disability.
HOW TO APPLY: Please merge your cover letter and resume into one PDF and Head to P4G.ca/opportunities Click the Halifax Chamber job posting Click "Apply Here"
APPLICATIONS ACCEPTED UNTIL JUNE 25 @ 12PM
Visit P4G.ca/opportunities to view the full posting