Building a Nation: a Success Story
In 1985, 98% of the Tahltan First Nation in British Columbia was unemployed, with 80% on welfare. Education was poor and there was no access to basic infrastructure or clean drinking water.
When the Canadian government and industry planned resource development on Tahltan lands, the First Nation created a model to allow development on their terms.
Today, the Tahltan’s economic development corporation is valued at more than $25 million. The people enjoy high-quality education, full employment and full access to infrastructure and drinking water. There are successful traditional language and cultural heritage programs for the youth, social programs for women and single mothers and the strongest Native-owned environmental assessment team in Canada.
Today, the Tahltan are self-empowered decision-makers in how their lands and resources develop. Meanwhile, their partners enjoy the fruits of their successful ventures.
How Did They Do It?
The most important thing we did was to develop a strong vision for where we wanted to be in 20 years, a strategy of how we were going to get there, and a vehicle (the development corporation) to take us there.
Our vision was two fold: First, to eliminate unemployment in our Nation by developing our people along with our resources, and secondly, to bring Pride and Dignity back to our Nation, by not being beggars in our own Land. In order to achieve our vision, we built strong teams, negotiated good partnerships and reinvested everything back into our people. We knew that a strong economy was not the end goal, it was a means to an end.
The end goal was to create well-being and quality of life, in essence, a great future for all Tahltans.
– Jerry Asp, Founding President of the Tahltan Nation Development Corporation
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