First Nation's potential stake in Sens purchase is 'reconciliation in action,' experts say

If a financial partnership between Kitigan Zibi Anishinābeg and one of the groups bidding to buy the Ottawa Senators materializes, it will mark more than just a win for the NHL team and its fans.

Experts say it could also signal a new era of economic clout for Indigenous communities in Canada after far too long on the sidelines.

Earlier this week, CBC News confirmed that the First Nation near Maniwaki, Que., had been approached by a business group led by Los Angeles-based rapper Neko Sparks and rapper Snoop Dogg and met with them Monday morning.

"Hopefully we'll see how this goes in the next couple weeks," Chief Dylan Whiteduck told CBC, adding that representatives from Kitigan Zibi planned to meet with at least one other group vying for what's widely expected to be a 10-figure deal to purchase the franchise from the family of Eugene Melnyk, who died last year.

"I think there's a great opportunity for our nation and our community to become strategic partners, and we're not closing the door on any groups at this point in time," he said.

"To be quite frank, it's about time. I think there's been a lot of opportunities where First Nations and Native Americans across North America could have been strategic partners with sports developments."

According to JP Gladu, former president and CEO of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business and current principal of Mokwateh, a private consultancy firm that specializes in facilitating similar partnerships, both sides stand to benefit significantly, particularly if the new owners plan to move the team to a new arena at LeBreton Flats.

The Algonquins of Kitigan Zibi are part of an outstanding title claim filed in 2016 that encompasses a swath of central Ottawa, including LeBreton Flats.

"I think this is a real opportunity for Indigenous communities, particularly Kitigan Zibi, to be able to develop further depth and breadth in business, and I think this is also a wonderful opportunity to flex economic reconciliation in action," said Gladu, a member of Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek on the eastern shores of Lake Nipigon. 

"Having the Indigenous people on side certainly is going to weigh in favour of getting the work done in an efficient way," he said. "It's going to be one less regulatory hurdle that a company's going to have to go through when they've got the landholders and rights holders onside."

Not long ago, the conversation around Indigenous culture and professional sports tended to focus on offensive team names and logos, Gladu noted.

"Now we've got a place where we're [potentially] having an Indigenous-owned major sports team, which is incredibly exciting," he said. "It's to showcase to Canadians that the level and sophistication of Indigenous business in this country is growing."

Just this week Major League Soccer announced the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation are among the owners of an expansion team in San Diego.

There are recent precedents in other sectors of the economy, notably last year's $1.12-billion agreement giving 23 First Nations and Métis communities a minority stake in seven Enbridge pipelines in the Athabasca region of northern Alberta, heralded by that province's former premier as a "historic, game-changing deal."