A Case Study Of Kitsaki Development Corporation

Abstract

This selection from the book “Regional Development from the Bottom Up” (Centre for Community Enterprise, 1993) details the evolution of one of Canada's foremost community economic development corporations in the 1980s and early ‘90s. Introduced in the earlier reading, Building Community Wealth (Lewis) the skill of Kitsaki Development Corporation (KDC) in the identification of strategic sectors and then leveraging its position to secure ownership and a wide variety of economic and social enterprises has set a standard as yet unsurpassed. Through KDC, the La Ronge First Nation now has several enterprises employing over 500 people and generating gross revenues of over $50 million per year. The benefits generated are beyond anything this First Nation could have imagined 25 years ago. Moreover, the development capacity housed within KDC has become a key vehicle for fostering aboriginal enterprise among First Nations across northern Saskatchewan by leveraging KDC capacity to syndicate shared ownership opportunities.