Indigenous business grants help transform communities, UCP says

Grants aimed at Indigenous businesses are helping create jobs and nurture down-home success stories across Alberta, the legislature heard as the opening of an application process approached.

The Aboriginal Business Investment Fund helps cover equipment and infrastructure purchases and upgrades, said Grant Hunter, the UCP member for Taber-Warner in the far south of the province.

Supported businesses create jobs while generating revenue and economic stability within their communities, he added.

Alberta’s 2025 budget allots $10 million for a program that has given financial boosts to 105 community-owned businesses since it began in 2014, said Hunter.

Indigenous Relations Minister Rick Wilson called the fund “a game-changer for communities across Alberta.”

Continued Wilson: “I can see the difference. This government is moving the dial, and when I go into these communities, it’s so nice to see the pride in the people, just to know that they’re contributing to help their youth grow and thrive.”

Wilson highlighted a Montana First Nation company called Akamihk Fresh, which used a $500,000 grant in 2021 to support the development of a hydroponic greenhouse for lettuce and herbs. This year the company in Wilson’s Maskwacis-Wetaskiwin riding has almost doubled its employee count to 30.

“They now have an immense amount of produce in markets and stores and schools all over Alberta,” Wilson said.

A store in Calgary keeps seeking more food from the company. “

They want all of their produce.”

Montana is one of four Cree nations served by Maskwacis, a community about 95 km south of Edmonton along Highway 2A.

Among the more noticeable of last year’s approvals is one that’s also connected to Maskwacis. A parking lot received an approval worth $750,000 to serve the new Bear Hills Casino and Travel Resort. The project of the Louis Bull Tribe is on the east side of the QE II Highway beside a popular rest stop between Edmonton and Red Deer.

But northern, remote and rural approvals in less obvious places are also among the 20 grants last year worth $10 million in all.

Dene Tha’ First Nation received funding of $750,000 in 2024 to rebuild a northern trophy fishing lodge devastated by wildfire. Accessible by plane, Tapawingo Lodge is on Bistcho Lake, about 20 kilometres south of the Alberta-NWT border in the province’s northwest corner.

In the Anzac area, about 50 km southeast of Fort McMurray, the Willow Lake Métis Nation got $425,482 for the development of a modular farm.

O’Chiese Market Place Inc. received $250,000 for a new café and laundromat in the Saulteaux community about 50 km northwest of Rocky Mountain House.

And Kainai Forage of the Blood Tribe received $250,000 to buy hay press equipment, computer upgrades, forklifts and a used truck. The Blackfoot nation is based in Stand Off, about 45 km southwest of Lethbridge.

Wilson called the Aboriginal Business Investment Fund an instrument of reconciliation between Alberta and Indigenous peoples.

“Economic reconciliation is a key part of my ministry’s work,” he said. “ABIF is a prime example of that, promoting economic stability, job growth and business development for communities in Alberta.”

The grant program’s deadline date, criteria and application for 2025-26 don’t appear yet on the Alberta government website. But Wilson said he expects the process to start this spring.