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By Scott Paradis, tbnewswatch.com

When industry comes knocking on the doors of First Nations, leaders of those communities may now have a better idea how to answer, said Nishawnbe-Aski Nation’s Grand Chief.

Stan Beardy declared the three-day NAN economic summit, which took place at the Valhalla Inn in Thunder Bay, a success following its final day Thursday afternoon. Throughout its three days the summit brought First Nation leaders together with private sector, industry and government representatives.

The goal of the conference was to create NAN-approved economic development strategy.

Throughout the summit, Beardy said First Nation leaders were able to learn from one another on how to deal with industry and private sector representatives who want to work with their communities.

“I think when these people go back (to their communities) they will have a better idea of how to respond to the industry,” Beardy said Thursday afternoon as the conference concluded.

The learning wasn’t exclusive to the First Nations representatives. Beardy said the response from people within the private sector was also encouraging.

“I think there’s a tremendous interest among industry and the private sector,” he said.

“They want to know how to engage First Nations with economic opportunity, and that’s what we are trying to create – a forum where interested private sector, industry, governments and others can come talk with us and say ‘we want to do business with you, what are your expectations and how do we work together?’”

NAN chiefs are now scheduled to meet in six weeks. Those chiefs will frame recommendations based on what they learned during the economic summit and present them at the meeting.

Beardy said the recommendations that are approved by the NAN chiefs will become their roadmap for future economic opportunities.

“In my mind, I think this has been a success,” he added.

Earlier that day Christine Kaszycki, Ontario’s Ring of Fire co-ordinator, told local media that the province would continue to work with communities located in the Ring of Fire area, specifically the Matawa First Nations and its Ring of Fire co-ordinator, to ensure that economic activity benefited both the province and the people of that region.

“Clearly there is an expectation for a significant partnership and participation in the process and we would agree with that,” she said after making a presentation that outlined the mining potential within the Ring of Fire area of Northern Ontario.

“We will just continue to foster those relationships and try to understand how we can best work together to achieve our mutual objectives.”