Vanguard Magazine

T Technology Watch 44 aPRiL/may 2016 www.vanguardcanada.com els are determined by some of the things I outlined above. Are companies success- fully engaging the Aboriginal community? Are they increasing Aboriginal procure- ment? Do they have programs in place to ensure their engagement with Aboriginal people and companies is consistent and sustainable? Business engagement, com- munity development, Aboriginal employ- ment — these are all key forms of support. In the end, increased support means more sustainable partnerships and shared eco- nomic prosperity between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal businesses. I'm incredibly passionate about the role that our people have in business, I am incredibly passion- ate about the contributions our people can make, and procurement needs to be the main tool that industry and governments should be utilizing to bolster our participa- tion. Also, a lot of CCAB's research shows that when we bolster indigenous represen- tation in procurement supply chains that we actually add to the bottom line." A good success story is Bruce Power, which has begun applying CCAB's Pro- gressive Aboriginal Relations (PAR) guide- lines to its own supply chain to increase Aboriginal business and procurement. Bruce Power has also been encouraging its suppliers to become CCAB members and to participate in the PAR program. Suncor has also recently signed on with OMX to manage and track their suppliers, particularly Aboriginal owned businesses, given their recent commitments to in- crease Aboriginal procurement in Canada. Moving towards the defence sector Although the current economic outlook is not very strong, a lot of CCAB mem- bers are saying they want to emerge out of the current climate with strong Aboriginal practices. They say that maintaining good relationships with Aboriginal communi- ties, people, and businesses are critical to success in this area. CCAB is now expanding into the de- fence sector and has engaged Lockheed Martin, ATCO and Davie Shipyards to begin. Lockheed Martin, in particular, has ad- opted the PAR program and was also the main supporter of the OMX webinar on Aboriginal content in defence procure- ments. In this issue of Technology Watch, I will highlight various CCAB certified Canadi- an Aboriginal-owned businesses that oper- ate or could operate in the defence sector. Stevens Solutions & Design Inc., which specializes in technical animations and vid- eos for the marine, manufacturing, law en- forcement and defence sectors, is one such company. The Atlantic Region-based business is led Barry Stevens, president of the com- pany. Stevens Solutions prides itself in marry- ing the technical with the creative. Many of its customers say that Stevens Solutions understand their requirements and the nuances of what they need wheth- er it's stated or not. The company has expertise in product design, manufacturing, operations, mar- keting, and sales and works with creative videographers, journalists, and animators. The company's present and planned fu- ture investments hardware and software will allow them to provide the highest level video and animation output. How- ever, a long-term investment connected to government procurements will enable the company to "hire and inspire" other Ab- original people. I also caught up with industry leader Mark Taylor, who is the shipbuilding strat- egy manager for the Joint Economic De- velopment Initiative. The group is focused on helping Aboriginal-owned businesses grow. JEDI is an Aboriginal not-for-profit or- ganization that works with various partners to foster Aboriginal economic develop- ment in New Brunswick. The organization offers a variety of pro- grams, services and events focused on sup- porting Aboriginal small businesses and entrepreneurs, Aboriginal community eco- nomic development, Aboriginal workforce development, and partnerships between Aboriginal communities in both the public and private sectors. The company uses the OMX platform to help the private sector find Aboriginal companies to partner with or become part of their supply chain. An important part of what JEDI does is to bring a variety of stakeholders together in an effort to encourage collaboration in pursuing economic development opportu- nities. One example of this is the New Bruns- wick Aboriginal Shipbuilding Engagement Strategy. The project includes Aboriginal communities, businesses, tribal councils, industry, organized labour, and govern- ment. All these stakeholders contributed to the development of the strategy that is now being implemented. As part of the imple- Aboriginal entrepreneur Barry Stevens speaking at JEDI's February 2016 Shipbuilding and Defence Plenary in Fredericton, NB. Stevens, who lives in Mahone Bay, NS, is a long time entrepreneur in the aerospace and defence sector and an OMX client. Steve Triska, is an Industrial Mechanic from Elsipogtog First Nation in New Brunswick

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