Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Fort Smith (Nov 29/99) - Close to 100 participants gathered to discuss capacity building, education and ways to stimulate economic development as part of the Building Communities conference in Fort Smith on Nov. 17 and 18.

Workshops encompassed subjects such as export marketing, electronic commerce, Y2K emergency measures and voluntarism.

"Specifically they (the participants) wanted to focus on economic development, education and keep on dealing with community-based activities," said Jake Herron, MACA superintendent for the South Slave region.

Guest speaker Barry Day, a former councillor from Stony Plain, Alta. spoke of how that community -- with a population of 2,500, similar to Fort Smith -- used resources from within to achieve prosperity.

"Geographically, yes, they're probably in a much better location," said Lloyd Jones, South Slave superintendent for RWED. "But they were able to work with people -- building the capacity of small entrepreneurs. The same thing is applicable on a small scale in the Northwest Territories."

The event, sponsored jointly by three government departments, was a follow-up to a similar South Slave conference held in Hay River in February.

All in all, those in attendance were pleased with the conference, Herron noted.

"I was quite impressed with the feedback from the participants and the press," he said.

Representatives from Fort Providence and Kakisa were among the participants.

Lloyd Chicot, chief of the Ka'a'ge Tu First Nation in Kakisa, said the conference provided him with some ideas on power. Since Fort Providence has established energy rates separate from Kakisa, the tiny community of 50 people is now potentially facing higher power rates. There were a couple of local energy consultants who lent their expertise during a workshop, said Chicot.

"They were looking at different ways to power your houses and that," he said. "They had a number of good ideas, some things that would work here in the community."

Stan Desjarlais, a board member with the Lutsel K'e development corporation, said with a proposed park in the Lutsel K'e area, the tourism workshop was of interest to him.

Overall, the conference was beneficial, he said.

"I thought it was well delivered, well organized and people were really helpful," he said.