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CANADIAN INDUSTRY ONLINE - DECEMBER 2013
A
CCORDING TO CANADI AN
record-keepers Statistics Cana-
da, almost 1.5 million people identify
themselves as Aboriginals in Canada,
making up 4.3% of the Canadian pop-
ulation.
Aboriginal groups constituted
the first economy in Canada, and have
been a driving force for development
in many areas of the country.
To gain a full sense of the impact
Aboriginal communities have on Can-
ada’s economy, there is no better place
to look than industry. CIO recently had
the opportunity to meet with the Cana-
dian Council for Aboriginal Business
(
CCAB), to get a picture of the broader
impact Aboriginal groups have made
in industry and what role Canada’s
First Peoples will have on the coun-
try’s future.
CCAB is a pan-Canadian busi-
ness organization, driving business
opportunities with the intent to enable
sustainable business relationships.
Members include Aboriginal busi-
nesses, Aboriginal community-owned
economic development corporations,
and companies operating in Canada.
The organization is non-partisan and
does not receive government funding
in order to operate.
LEADERSHIP
President and CEO of CCAB JP
Gladu has been with the organization
for just over a year, but his passion for
the organization is that of someone
who has been involved in promot-
ing Aboriginal business for more than
a decade. Gladu grew up in North-
ern Ontario off-reserve, and has been
working with Aboriginal communities
in Canada in one way or another since
his youth. “I found my calling right
out of college working with First Na-
tions communities, because I saw the
challenges and opportunities that were
“
I found my
calling right
out of college
working with
First Nations
communities, be-
cause I saw the
challenges and
opportunities
that were out
there for us”
out there for us,” he recalls.
Gladu was the youngest Aborigi-
nal Forestry Advisor hired in British
Columbia, where he went after his
two and a half year stint with Natu-
ral Resources Canada. However, he
was called back to Thunder Bay af-
ter spending five years out west and
was faced with the unfortunate real-
ity at the time that as a First Nations
individual, with a strong educational
background, that the opportunities
were limited in his home town. “It was
appalling to me that our communities
didn’t have access to hire their own
people and that industry, at the time,
wasn’t waking up to this issue.” When
Gladu took a job with the National
Aboriginal Forestry Association, he
saw that some areas of industry were
in fact taking notice of Aboriginal com-
munities and their capacity within in-
dustry. His passion to explore the links
between industry and First Nations
communities was fuelled. It is his pres-
ent role, which followed, at the CCAB
that has been the ideal fit.
This passion is echoed by the
CCAB Board, whose background and
breadth of knowledge is critical to the
goals of CCAB. “We have a fantastic
board of directors, which is important
as we are a pan-Canadian organiza-
tion that crosses all sectors. There isn’t
a sector in which Aboriginal business
does not exist. Our board’s job is to
direct our initiatives, and therefore the
