A long process to develop a piece of First Nations owned land on Main Street South in Dauphin took a big step forward with an official groundbreaking.
The land, co-owned by Pine Creek First Nation and Ebb and Flow First Nation, was purchased in 2007 as part of a vision focussing on a business enterprise, which would provide income to both communities and contribute to a better standard of living for all Anishinabe.
In the end, it was decided a gas station was to be the first development with Petro Canada coming on board early in the process
The ground breaking was the culmination of a lot of hard work, said Pine Creek First Nation Chief Derek Nepinak.
“About 15 years of work by Pine Creek and Ebb and Flow. It wasn’t easy along the way. We had to help each other through the process of getting a mortgage, making those mortgage payments, having a vision about what the future might look like, converting the land to reserve and then, of course, getting the business interests together to make sure that we put the right business in there,” he said.
“And all the commercial partners that stepped up like Petro Canada have worked along with us.”
Nepinak said with all of the work done on the front end, the project is expected to progress quickly. It is hoped the gas station, which will include a Burger King restaurant, will be open for business this fall.
“We have our contractors all set up. These are all very, very well experienced in the business of building gas stations. Some have built 20 or more gas stations in the past,” he said.
“So we trust their ability to get shovels in the ground and move quickly.”
And while the initial development is exciting, it is just the start of many thing to come.
“Beyond that, we also have plans to develop the 80 acres behind there. We have some business ideas on the table. We are doing some feasibility work on some businesses that we are looking into and we’ll be announcing some of that, probably in the next six months or so,” Nepinak said.
And Nepinak is excited by what it represents.
“I think this is an example of reconciliation, economic reconciliation at work,” he said.
“This isn’t just our gas station. Petro Canada is a brand for every Canadian. You can trust the product and you can trust the service we are going to provide. And we hope that everybody comes out and enjoys the new gas station.”