The Government of Saskatchewan has proclaimed today, May 6th, Indigenous Economic Development Day to recognize the contribution of Indigenous peoples, businesses and organizations to the economic wellbeing of the province, and to acknowledge the ongoing work to increase prosperity for Indigenous people and communities.

Data from Statistics Canada states 5.8 per cent of Saskatchewan’s total private sector businesses have majority First Nations, Metis or Inuit ownership, which is the second highest percentage of all of the provinces and double Canada’s 2.4 per cent.

Saskatchewan Indigenous Economic Development Network Founder and Chair, Milton Tootoosis, says, “There is a slow shift to inclusion versus exclusion. A seat at the decision-making table now has, for the first time since the 19th century Numbered Treaties were entered into, made economic reconciliation not just a vision of the Chiefs, but a reality.”