How various organizations
are working to enhance
Aboriginal involvement
in the defence industry
T
Technology Watch
CCAB President JP Gladu and Nicole Verkindt announcing the OMX-CCAB partnership at
the Oct. 2015 CCAB event for Aboriginal businesses in Saskatchewan.
aboriginal
buSineSSeS
booSting proCurement opportunitieS for
42 aPRiL/may 2016 www.vanguardcanada.com
d
espite growing up in a small
town in rural Canada, I didn't
have a lot of exposure to our
Aboriginal communities.
I knew about them. I had
taken history in university after all and was
often horrified when I read of our nation's
past and current treatment of this commu-
nity.
My uncle, who served in the RCMP, was
involved in Aboriginal self-policing. He
travelled with the prime minister to various
communities and he often told me stories
about his trips. We debated what needed to
happen, but I always struggled to come up
with any solutions.
When I started working for my family's
manufacturing business, we often part-
nered with local Native American's to bid
on U.S. defence contracts that were set
aside for disadvantaged groups. As a result,
we often transferred IP to our partners and
worked with their teams to deliver criti-
cal projects for the U.S. government. Not
only did these business activities create jobs
in the Native American sector, they also
produced long-term economic benefits to
those communities, and built their capacity.
Finding immediate economic solutions
to help our Aboriginal communities in
Canada just felt so complicated, and dif-
ficult.
However, I knew from experience in the
U.S. that there working models that I can
adopt and the situation changed last year.
Shared mission
In October 2015, OMX linked up with
the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Busi-
nesses (CCAB).
Immediately, our two organizations
nicole Verkindt is the founder and president of
omX. she is a Board member of the canadian
commercial corporation and was recently appointed to
the Board of the Peter munk school of Global affairs.
