Things are changing in northern services and some are progressive and in line with the needs of the northern regions and benefit the communities. North West Company curiously continues to be the lone private non-aboriginal player.
CBC reports that Canada Post currently has a $60-million annual subsidy to deliver fresh food to the North under the Food Mail Program (1) . The Federal Government plans to turn this role over to non-government companies. While there is an indication of a native presence in two of the organizations: Arctic Co-operatives Limited, (ACL) (2), and La Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Québec (FCNQ) (3), the involvement of North West Company (4) remains questionable.
Aside from its historical role as being the government’s private partner in the economic extraction of aboriginal resources, they are otherwise a vestigial element in the proposed arrangement. In other words, aboriginal business cannot only do without their participation, they can do much better. The other two organisations possess a myriad of assets required to fulfill the objectives of the plan.
Arctic Co-operatives Limited ACL is a member organisation of the Canadian Co-operative Association. It is not itself an aboriginal organisation. However local co-ops are member owned and operated. In the case of ACL and in conjunction with FCNQ much of the business alliances and company ownerships are linked to aboriginal interests.
Transportation of goods is handled by Nunavut Sealink and Supply Incorporated (NSSI) (5) which was established in the year 2000 by Arctic Co-operatives Limited and Desgagnes Transarctik Inc. (6) to provide door-to-door transportation and supply services in Nunavut. Northern Transportation Company Limited (NTCL) (7) is a marine transportation company in the Canadian and American Arctic owned by NorTerra (8). In addition, NSSI and Taqramut Transport Inc. (TTI) (9) , created by Desgagnés Transarctik Inc. and La Fédération des Coopératives du Nouveau-Québec, services the communities of Nunavik for their specific sealift needs and requirements. Although the relationships involve a number of companies, all appear to have a strong aboriginal co-operative partnership component.
In terms of perishables NorTerra, through its subsidiary Canadian North (10), have the ability to provide air services. NorTerra Inc. is a Canadian management and holding company, owned equally by the Inuvialuit Development Corporation (IDC) (11) and Nunasi Corporation (Nunasi) . Both are aboriginal birthright development corporations, representing the Inuvialuit of the Western Arctic and the Inuit of Nunavut.
The above may sound very intricate and it is. They seem to have all the bases covered for provision of services. The net result is that competencies and native and community interests are well represented in the framework of ACL and FCNQ. So where then would any improvement be seen in the involvement of the NWC?
Aboriginal businesses and those companies that have significant aboriginal ownership are willing to adapt in order to serve their communities while NWC seems wholly profit-oriented and benefit only through being granted government guarantees and subsidies. No unique contribution seems to be made by NWC that cannot be fulfilled by the other participants. Their inclusion seems to be contrived and fraught with government inefficiency. Therefore it must be demonstrated how fair the role distribution is among the various companies and whether NWC is merely involved for the purpose of providing it’s bottom line with a portion of aboriginal revenue.
References:
(1) “Canada Post to lose Food Mail Program” CBC News, May 17, 2010, http://license.icopyright.net/user/viewFreeUse.act?fuid=ODQwNjYxNg
(2) Arctic Co-operatives Limited, http://www.arcticco-op.com/index.htm
(3) La Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Québec, http://www.fcnq.ca/webconcepteur/web/fcnq/en/nav/federation.html
(4) NorthWest Company, http://www.northwest.ca/
(5) Nunavut Sealink and Supply Incorporated http://www.arcticsealift.com/en/NSSI.aspx
(6) Desgagnes Transarctik Inc., http://www.arcticsealift.com/en/index.aspx
(7) Northern Transportation Company Limited , http://www.ntcl.com/
(8) NorTerra, http://www.norterra.com/ocnor.html
(9) Taqramut Transport Inc., http://www.arcticsealift.com/en/TTI.aspx
(10) Canadian North, http://www.norterra.com/ooccn.html
(11) Inuvialuit Development Corporation, http://www.idc.inuvialuit.com/
(12) Nunasi Corporation, http://www.nunasi.com/
One Response to “Serving the True North – The North West Company Should Not Be Involved”
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June 13th, 2010 at 20:33
[...] the article of May 19, 2010 (Serving the True North – The North West Company Should Not Be Involved) it was argued that the North West Company should not take a principal role in replacing the Canada [...]