Their founder and chairperson said he’s spoken about this for several years and has seen differences in economies in Saskatchewan compared to other parts of the country and continent where our economies are more fragmented.
“There is only one colour in business. The colour of money,” Milton Tootoosis said, adding that many non-Indigenous customers don’t shop at Indigenous businesses thinking they are only for Indigenous people and vice versa. He noted there are several barriers that make starting a business a little harder for Indigenous entrepreneurs like education levels and lack of access to capital.
“Any business, big or small, whether you’re online or have a brick and mortar business, it costs money – it’s a calculated risk,” Tootoosis said., a business that makes environmentally-friendly cleaning solutions and was started by the Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs . Today, the Battleford Agency Tribal Chiefs announced their First Nations owned & operated cleaning product that is going to be on the shelves