Tribal councils enter tech services

SASKATOON This spring marked the launch of a technical services co-operative led by four of the province’s most prominent tribal councils, with the help of Saskatoon-based organization Co-operatives First.

The Saskatchewan First Nations Technical Services Cooperative Ltd., which provides engineering, water treatment and housing inspection services to First Nations’ housing programs, launched in March with tribal councils and individual First Nations as the shareholders.

“They’ve basically helped us (with) their knowledge, their expertise, their subject matter; their experts basically helped amend our bylaws (and) prepare us for our first AGM that we held last week,” said Tim Isnana, SFNTSC’S business manager.

He said Co-operatives First has brought SFNTSC into compliance with the Saskatchewan Co-operatives Act and worked closely with members on amending bylaws. At the first annual general meeting, it helped members understand the board’s role as they were selecting board members.

“They basically have compiled all this information available to the general public that’s interested in creating a co-op and it makes it so valuable that the information is housed at Co-operatives First’s location in Saskatoon,” Isnana said.

Co-operatives First was formed two years ago with funding from Federated Co-op Limited. It’s rooted in research conducted by the University of Saskatchewan’s Centre for the Study of Co-operatives.

FCL’S board and senior executives wanted to know why rural and First Nations communities didn’t have a lot of co-op development in recent years and what it could do to make that happen. Co-operatives First continues to receive funding from FCL and has been doing outreach work in rural and Indigenous communities.

Co-operatives First’s executive director, Audra Krueger, said the organization works with groups with “cool” ideas they want to make a reality. It also works with groups in other western provinces — for example, a group interested in taking over a tree planting business in B.C. called Tree Amigos.

What they do with individual groups is listen rather than talk. The staff has expertise in areas such as incorporation, bylaws and the details of co-op development, “the things that could stop organizations in their tracks,” Krueger said.

“We don’t develop co-ops. We help the groups to develop their co-op.

“There’s a difference there. We don’t want to come in and develop their co-op; we want to assist them to develop their co-op.”

Each tribal council and First Nation holds a single vote as shareholders in the technical service co-operative.

The aim in the future is to enable individual band members to have their voices heard at general assemblies in their communities, and to hire people with the requisite qualifications who live in the First Nations communities become members of the technical services co-op.

That could include training opportunities for young Indigenous people who may want to become housing inspectors.