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Gail Murray, Aboriginal Banking Manager, RBC BC Region |
When Hon. Michael Bryant, former Aboriginal Affairs Minister of Ontario, went to people at the University of Toronto law faculty to plead for answers he was concerned with a festering problem regarding First Nation economic development.
The problem being discussed is a lack of First Nation commercial activity due to existing law, particularly Sec. 89 of the Indian Act, which states, "Subject to this Act, the real and personal property of an Indian or a band situated on a reserve is not subject to charge, pledge, mortgage, attachment, levy, seizure, distress or execution in favour or at the instance of any person other than an Indian or a band."
Politics is changing the rules and eventually the law will change according to the political will, and the priority is to clarify Aboriginal peoples place in the Canada. Certainly that was the purpose of the legal academic exercise at the University of Toronto Law Faculty a few months ago.
No doubt the minister was frustrated with proceedings against the Elders of Kitchenaumaykoosib Innunwig, and he said the matter is one of Commercial rather than Criminal concern. He called for a court system that would accommodate the legal concerns of all the stakeholders in these situations.
"I think the most important thing is that everyone recognizes First Nation economic development is a political matter," Professor Douglas Sanderson of the law faculty, said after the speech. It is becoming increasingly problematic when a legal document, the Indian Act, deprives people of a framework to build their economies.
Nevertheless Sanderson said there are many ways to overcome this oppressive (probably antiquated) policy. The answers lie with law makers, First Nations, politicians, and corporate Canada to act together on economic development.
The current political reality demands increasing effort be put into finding ways to do economic development on First Nation lands, including Indian Reserves.
Gail Murray is on the other side of the country where the same battle to do economic development ensues. "There is headway," in finding ways to do economic development, she said, as an Aboriginal Banking Manager for the RBC BC Region. This RBC region's efforts are breaking new ground in First Nation commercial development.
"I was working in the not-for-profit sector with a focus on First Nation in the central Vancouver Island area," said Gail. She met some people from the bank and they recruited her to learn business and commercial banking.
Within two years she joined a new era dawning at RBC, Aboriginal banking. She loves the fit, "I am Aboriginal, and my dad is Chippewa Cree. I have a passion for building capacity in First Nation communities." There is an increasing effort since the Assembly of First Nations National Chief presented a challenge to corporate Canada, accepted by RBC, to work to address the issue of on-reserve poverty.
"Aboriginal banking as a formal market segment was in its infancy when I joined the team," said Gail. "It was only a few years in operation," said Gail. "The mandate was to provide capital, which was underway but the Indian Act is still the Indian Act. We were just beginning to develop new ways to work formally with First Nation communities in business projects and housing developments."
After all, "Commercial banking has had to do things differently. Lending practices are different and additionally we must recognize the fat that First Nations function as a form of government, but we have case law over the years to assist RBC in establishing First Nation banking services. It has grown out of First Nation assertion of Aboriginal Rights and Title," she said.
So things are changing politically and "As they become empowered through developing communities and governing their land they need banking services that understand their unique and complex needs. Financial service become complicated in situations where the First Nations are acting like municipalities," she said.
The bigger First Nation communities require complex financial service arrangements, and remote communities need better access to capital to sustain the economy.
Gail shared that has many communities are working to develop Comprehensive Community Plans "and RBC has been actively engaged with many of our clients to develop and fulfill these plans."
It begins with the pillars of planning to compose an economic development strategy. Remember that these First Nation communities almost inevitably need to be levered into existing local economies, "It calls for working with a variety of stakeholders to include First Nations in the economy.
It has been a long struggle to create the value in the land, and, "Those are often leasehold arrangements. We are now able to lend on designated lands approved land codes, and approved self-governing lands. Self-governing First Nations can create their own laws to allow for lenders to have certainty in the investments."
The self-government initiatives of Westbank First Nation provided a boiler-plate type experience out of which RBC Aboriginal Banking could cast similar proposals in economics for other First Nation communities and properties. Since Westbank mortgaging and financing on-reserve began this past few years, RBC BC Region has been expanding the First Nation stake in mortgage services and commercial leasehold properties and other financial services, including mortgage-financed property developments of various scale.
Westbank First Nation no longer has the exclusive entry into leasehold and household financing of mortgages on their reserve lands, "Aboriginal banking policies are changing. As we speak things are beginning to change for the positive. It is so fulfilling to know that you can work to help First Nations assert their inherent right to self-government and that means creating an inclusive economy."
