OHSWEKEN — As the Six Nations Emergency Control Group hits a pace in responding to the pandemic, the next phase of the fight is coming into focus: how will Six Nations mitigate the coming economic losses to the community.
Six Nations Elected Chief Mark Hill told Two Row Times the actual total loses are unknown but expected to be significant.
“I think personally it’s going to be one of council’s biggest challenges,” said Hill. “I think that this is definitely going to have a huge impact on our economy in general.”
Six Nations of the Grand River does not have data projecting what loses could look like — but the combination of limiting traffic to the community along with a sharp spike in local unemployment does not paint a comforting picture.
According to SNGR there are approximately 300 local businesses on Six Nations registered with the band office since voluntary business registration began in 2012. Hill says there are hundreds of additional local businesses that were independently recognized by council prior to the official registration process. Those numbers have not yet been tallied.
Because on-reserve businesses do not collect federal and provincial taxes an unknown number of the community’s long-standing businesses are not registered with the provincial and federal governments. It is not yet clear how or if hard working legitimate local businesses recognized in the community will be able to access rescue funding being put in place by Ottawa.
That funding was announced this weekend by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — $306 million for Indigenous small and medium sized businesses administered by the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association and diverted to Indigenous financial institutions across the country for local disbursement.
Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller noted that many smaller, Indigenous businesses are being disproportionately affected by the economic downturn of the pandemic, especially smaller companies and those that do not have access to financing from larger banks.
“These businesses may and are already facing unique challenges such as being in rural or remote locations and having less access to capital,” Miller said.
Two Rivers Community Development Centre in Ohsweken is one of the institutions that will administer funding. In a letter to business owners on the territory, Business Support Officer Rachel Martin said “Two Rivers will receive funding to deliver the program in our service area, however we have not yet been advised of the terms, conditions, eligibility criteria or amounts available to individual businesses nor the total funding that will be made available for distribution in our service area.”
Martin said that when that information is available and an application process is ready to share — local businesses will be emailed with details on how to apply. “Is this going to be the new norm? That is the difficult piece — the unknown and the timing,” said Chief Hill. “I’ve been in contact with both provincial and federal leaders. We are a big entrepreneurial community. A ton of small businesses are being impacted. We’re looking to these ongoing discussions to ensure that they are not left to the wayside.”
Hill said that there is the potential for a local fund to be developed to further assist band members but says those discussions are still in early stages.
“Even if it’s looking for a short term response. We have to look at our own funding. The priority is still the emergency piece of things. Although I don’t think we’ve technically hit the peak of COVID-19 — we still want to make sure that we’re letting businesses know that we’re not forgetting about them,” said Hill.
For now the community and local businesses wait — not knowing how or when they will be able to re-open and how or when the ECG will re-open the flow of traffic.
In an interview with CKRZ-FM, Mike Player, owner of Knighthawk Security, the firm managing the entrypoints told Chief Hill guards are turning away at least 100 non-residents a day at some spots — people who normally shop and visit the territory.
When traffic will open up and businesses can resume normal operations is still uncertain.
“That is the biggest question of the unknowns,” said Hill. “The Emergency Control Group put a max of 30 days and are reassessing the situation on a daily and weekly basis in terms of restricting access to the territory.”
Hill said that implementing local health and safety standards prior to re-opening public access to the community must be put in place to protect businesses, their employees and customers.
“We’re working diligently as quickly as possible…looking at potential implementation of strict health and safety protocols and exploring what that looks like.” Hill said options of businesses installing plexiglass barriers for staff, initiating curbside pick-up and hand-washing stations for employees and patrons are all on the table.
“We need to see how we can safely be able to get businesses back operating,” said Hill adding that it will be necessary to add feedback from the community and council being diligent in the expense this transition into implementing health and safety standards for local businesses as part of the pandemic response plan will cost the community.
“We need to do this collectively and make sure everybody is in this together. Some people aren’t going to be happy but it’s still looking at the bigger picture and looking to the economy next. This is an opportunity to set a standard. Because of COVID-19 we need to be able to set these high standards to protect the economy and those businesses within it,” said Hill. “I think those are the priority areas for us. Still keeping in mind the health and safety of the community in general – that is the main priority at this point. But the protection of the economy is a huge piece.”
