ʔaq̓am Community Enterprises Quarterly Update Sept 30th, 2020
ʔaq̓am Trading
ʔaq̓am Trading has continued to perform very well in the third quarter of 2020 despite the Covid-19 pandemic. We are continue to be well on our way to meet our net profit goals for 2020. The store staff and management continue to maintain cleaning and sanitization
protocols with the health and safety of our staff and customers as their top priority.
Trading continues to be proudly 100% staffed with ʔaq̓am community members. We would like to thank everyone for their continued support of ʔaq̓am Trading and encourage you to keep shopping with us and continue to give us ideas of products that we can bring in to our store.
D&B Flagging & Traffic Control
D&B has been operating at full capacity all summer and fall. D&B is well on track to meeting its’ revenue and net profit goals for 2020. We would like to thank all of our hard working and dedicated staff for such a successful summer and fall season.
Renewable Forest License
ʔaq̓am Resources Limited Partnership continues to work together in partnership with the ʔaq̓am Lands department to continue negotiating responsible timber harvest deals with stewardship principles always top of mind.
Utility Scale Solar Project
The BC NDP government has called a Provincial election on October 24th, 2020. Since the NDP came into power in 2017, the government has operated in a minority governance model. During the NDP time in government they have not released any procurement streams to apply for an Energy Purchase Agreement. We will have to again wait and see after the election who forms government and what their power purchasing policies will be, especially now that Site C is up in the air once again. ACE will continue to lobby in a government-to-government strategy to continue working towards a direct accommodation of an EPA. While we negotiate and wait for the completion of the election, ACE continues to work towards the completion of the lease agreement requirements with ʔaq̓am so that we are ready to build when the opportunity comes to fruition. This is and will continue to be a long-term project with the goal of aligning the opportunity when the Province is in demand for the power.
Adventure Park
We had a site visit with the iPlayco team (The consultants we have hired to complete our feasibility, business plan and modelling) at the end of August. These interviews and site tours were completed over a few days looking at potential building sites. We are now awaiting the full feasibility report, which will include a business plan and 2D modelling. Once we have the report we can begin discussions and decisions on whether to move forward on this business opportunity.
Agriculture Project – Opportunity Assessment
As part of the initial provincial grant that ACE received, our opportunity assessment report was completed and submitted by our contracted agrologist Andrea Gunner. This report outlines our best opportunities of crops that we can grow, how to grow them and who and how to sell.
The Province has given ACE the go ahead to apply into step two of the agriculture program that provides an additional $10K for business and model planning based off the opportunity assessment report that we just received. We are now also exploring opportunities with the First Nations Agriculture Association. The intent of this project is to build a long-term, sustainable food production business.
Gravel Pit
ʔaq̓am Resources Limited Partnership has negotiated its first deal with B/A Blacktop & Terus Inc. to begin extracting material from the first three phases that ARLP has a lease in place with ʔaq̓am.
B/A Blacktop
ARLP has just completed and signed its’ first ever extraction license agreement with Terus Construction Ltd. who is the umbrella corporation for B/A Blacktop. This agreement is a one- year trial deal that will allow for the development of the gravel pit. We are excited to finally get this pit up and running to bring in more valuable revenues into ARLP.
Partnership Updates
Allnorth - Our partnership with Allnorth continues to be a reliable, consistent source of revenue for ACE. We continue to identify and then bid on opportunities together. We are currently exploring opportunities together for the Kicking Horse Canyon twinning project.
FortisBC – We continue to work together through a renewed Memorandum of Understanding towards a utility scale solar project.
Nupqu – We continue to operate and manage D&B Flagging & Traffic Control alongside our partner Nupqu.
Business Opportunities
ACE is currently exploring two business opportunities that are confidential. ACE continues to identify new business opportunities as they present themselves.
ACE Board of Directors
Sandra Van Steijns tenure as an ACE director has been extended by Chief and Council until October 31st, 2020. Sandra is leaving our board as she has accepted a new job at a casino resort in Alberta. We would like to thank Sandra for her dedication and contributions to the development corporation, you will be missed!
If you are passionate about business and have an interest in joining our board, please contact Christopher McCurry, ACE CEO at cmccurry@aqam.net
Regards,
Christopher McCurry
CEO for ʔaq̓am Community Enterprises
