Members Question: What do you think about development?

My Response:

Well, first of all development has to be there to benefit the people, in a real way. I am not against development or am I against developing business partnerships but I do believe that we need to have input and direction from our own membership in terms of what developments will happen, and only then will we ensure that developments benefit our people. These decisions should not be left to only three or four individuals on our reserve.

I will acknowledge that we are in a good position on our reserve, better than most reserves, that the Chief and Council’s work of the past has brought us to this point, where we have a lot of jobs available.

However, our development strategies must evolve. We can no longer only focus on jobs and money, which is a fine approach for a reserve that is beginning from a point with absolutely no development and is just trying to get something started. We are past that point, and need to become more advanced in our development strategies.

It is time we moved beyond only requiring jobs and money. Within development there are several troubling trends and problems, including: First, the lease monies paid are not the true market value because of the limitations within the real estate appraisal process, on reserve lands that cannot be directly owned. Second, banks and financial institutions are beginning to resist financing lease agreements that have requirements to reassess the value and payments on the lease every 5 (or 10) years, because then the lease payments may become too expensive for the developer and their loan repayments uncertain (Which, to me, means the lease will be based, and set, on the lowest value of the land for 99 years, for the benefit of the developer and bank, not our community – and ask: What’s wrong with paying the true value of the land?). Third, the jobs that are created are often low-wage menial positions – is that what our community wants – how do we know if we don’t ask? I believe the time has come to be proactive and not just reactive to the development process.

I will focus on this third point – jobs. I believe that the development process is backwards, that only a few individuals are choosing which developments happen on our lands, and then when the development is in place, round people up and try to make them work there, we are simply developing for the sake of developing.

Instead, the community should be directing those few individuals as to what type of jobs/employment opportunities they want to see on our reserve and then those individuals pursue those types of developments, as directed by the people. Then we will get real interest into what developments happen and can put in place employment/training programs and strategies.

We are approaching development as only a business would, and not a community. That is, we only look at the fiscal gains and statistics in our year-end reports to see if we are doing good or bad. How much money did we make? How many jobs did we create? Etc. However, I think we have to expand our analysis to include broader community questions, such as: Has the developments over the past year/term improved the well-being of our community members? And, we need to take a closer look at our statistics. For example, if we look at Sonora Dunes, do those jobs benefit the well-being of our community if no band members work there? Or, over the past year, why were there only housekeeping positions advertised for members who want to work at Spirit Ridge? Where are the management positions or training opportunities? (I choose to look at these businesses because they are our newest developments).

These are some of the reasons I believe we need: Direction from the People.

It was stated at a recent Industrial Park designation vote meeting that OIBDC plans to get approval from the People before any developments happen within the Industrial Park. For one, this should have been happening over the last 10 years. Second, I plan to hold OIBDC to that statement, so that it doesn’t become an empty promise or statement said to just quiet those at the meeting. Again, the time has really come for us to move beyond the jobs and money approach.