b'SUCCESS STORYWhat I always tell Chief and Council is, Ive got to look you in the eye and tell you, you have control. So if we start to expand and we find something like a burial site, we have to be able Creatingto say, Were shutting it down.Opportunity - Jim Bennettthrough Wood icant amount of project de-risking was involved. Jim was concerned about avoiding loss for the First Nation, so Fibre Recovery the economic development corpora-tion created a separate legal struc-ture for the business. The models key advantage is that it removes the Nation and community assets from the Atli Chip Limited Partnership, business, ultimately protecting it from Namgis First Nation potential losses.FINDING DEBT THAT WOULDNT I t all started with the creation ofthe idea. Jim is a director and trea- BURDEN THE NATIONresidual fibre recovery zones. Insurer on the Board of Directors for AtliEarly on, the Atli Chip plant received spring 2020, the British ColumbiaResources Corporation, the Namgisa federal government grant for capital Ministry of Forests began to penalizeFirst Nations economic developmentfunding, but it needed to raise more forestry companies for leaving toocorporation for forestry. A chippingmoney and take on some debt to start much waste when cutting down treesbusiness could meet demand fromup operations. To acquire the capital, on northern Vancouver Island. Theboth pulp chip companies and forestryJim says, We first went to banks. Ministry was seeking to improve thelicence holders in the area. And the barrier in this regard is that recovery and use of waste wood in thetheir risk model and understanding of coastal forest.Early in 2021, working with twoIndigenous business has not evolved non-Indigenous partner companies,to fully match the structures that are In this shift, Namgis First Nation sawNamgis First Nation created the Atliin place. an opportunity. This economic-mind- Chip Limited Partnership.ed First Nation located on northernNamgis had taken pains to separate Vancouver Island knew there was aI am a very big fan of baby steps,the limited partnership and forestry shortage of pulp chips on the says Jim, who is also a consultantdevelopment corporation from the B.C. coast.working in Indigenous economicFirst Nation, yet mainstream banks development and a former partneroften persist in seeking a guarantee What if we could collect and chip theat KPMG. So we took a lot of babyof any funds borrowed from the First waste wood? Jim Bennett recalls ofsteps. COVID delayed us, and a signif- Nation itself.Issue #2, 2023INDIGENOUS PROSPERITY 25'