04 Apr Det’on Cho Management LP
Over the past 30 years, Det’on Cho Management LP has become a pillar of the Northwest Territories economy. Located just outside of Yellowknife in Ndilo and Dettah, Det’on Cho was created to be the economic development arm of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. Today they are one of the largest private employers of Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents in the territory. “There’s been a lot of success and growth from where we first began,” says Paul Gruner, the CEO of Det’on Cho. “There was no land claim or self-government settlement to help start and finance the company. We just had a modest $15,000 grant and mission to create prosperity when we started.” Det’on Cho Management LP, formerly the Det’on Cho Corporation, was founded in 1988. In addition to the hope of jobs and prosperity for community members, the Chief and Council of the Yellowknives Dene were determined to benefit from the development of the natural resource industry in the area. By focusing on smart business, capacity building, and partnerships with the region’s resource development industries, Det’on Cho’s leadership team was able to grow their initial seed grant into a group of companies that today generates millions a year in revenue while employing 800-900 people. About 600 of these employees are local, over half are women, and many are Indigenous. Under its corporate umbrella, Det’on Cho currently owns and operates several different businesses, including Bouwa Whee Catering (the second largest Indigenous camp and catering company in Canada), Det’on Cho Logistics (the largest northern-based logistics company), Det’on Cho Environmental, and We Le Dai Corporation Ltd. They are also involved in several joint ventures and partnerships in areas like exploration, construction, transportation, logistics, human resources, training, and reclamation and remediation. “We are proud to be an essential part of the supply chain for our clients,” says Gruner, “We are providing the services necessary to help the North become a world leader in the emerging Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) movement.” In 2019, Det’on Cho’s success was recognized by the territory when they won the Economic Leadership award, a distinction that just the year before had gone to billion-dollar juggernaut De Beers Canada. That same year they also won the Indigenous Business of the Year award at the 2019 Arctic Indigenous Investment Conference. In 2020, Det’on Cho was awarded Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Culture, a first for any company based in the three Canadian Territories and only the third time an Indigenous organization has won the award. Other recent successes include developing a job creation and capacity building program that was recognized by the territory, becoming one of the first non-settled First Nation to restructure their economic development corporation under a limited partnership model with an advanced tax ruling from CRA, and putting in place a new governance model that as CEO Gruner says, “will ensure Det’on Cho is built to last for generations.”
“Canada can’t move forward without having reconciliation, and a big part of that is economic reconciliation,” says Gruner. But Det’on Cho’s success is measured by far more than profits, policies, or recognition. “It’s really important that we’re creating good, meaningful employment opportunities,” says Gruner. “We posted 800 jobs last year and now what we’ve built with our team is not only good employment, but also working with individuals around their career paths and desires and figuring out where they want to go and how we can help them get there. This includes a scholarship and mentorship program and conducting outreach to help community members overcome employment barriers.” The impact of those efforts to provide meaningful livelihoods for community members cannot be overstated and represents the realization of the vision the Yellowknives Dene set out to achieve 30 years ago. For Gruner though, it is important to recognize how that impact is possible. “We’re very much a performance-based culture. It’s not about creating jobs at all costs. We need to be able to produce if we want to be profitable. If we want to be sustainable, we’ve got to have an eye out for the future.” “It’s great to go back to the community and to have job fairs and all sorts of good programs, but if you don’t have the business fundamentals you can’t focus on doing all that good.” Gruner has seen firsthand too many Indigenous and non-Indigenous businesses that have failed because of politics or bad business practices. “Nobody wins at the end of the day with that.” Det’on Cho’s strategy has been to become “the best run indigenous corporation in the Northwest Territories and the Indigenous partner of choice.” Their focus is on business fundamentals like strong financial oversight, independent boards, good governance, and creating a performance-based culture. In some ways, that’s meant scaling back to focus more on their core strengths. “Being profitable and sustainable is much more important than going as fast as we can.” The strategy has been to focus on Det’on Cho’s strategic advantages as well as new opportunities. “We have a whole slew of reclamation and remediation projects in the North. We did a market analysis and determined that there’s roughly two and a half to three billion dollars-worth of projects spread across the Northwest Territories and six to eight billion dollars across the three Territories. So, we asked ourselves, ‘what can we do to be active participants in that sector?’” Pursuing these kinds of specific business verticals is not only good for growing business, but for increasing Det’on Cho’s resilience in the face of the inevitable decline of natural resource development. We have an active mining sector. We know that’s on decline. That’s just reality. These things aren’t forever.” This has also helped them confront challenges like a lack of access to capital, overreliance on a single industry, and the economic fallout from COVID-19. Gruner believes that you can create good solid businesses and still embrace Indigenous cultural values. His message to other Indigenous-focused businesses is to bake good business fundamentals into the work right from the start. “That doesn’t mean that you’ve turned your back on your Indigenous values or your heritage or community. You’re simply taking the best of one world and you’re merging that with another for the benefit of everyone.” This is Indigenomics. Gruner also recognizes the importance of the Indigenous economy. “Canada can’t move forward without having reconciliation, and a big part of that is economic reconciliation. So, it’s in every community and Canadian’s best interest that we see the Indigenous economy blossom because we will all succeed because of that.”
Det’on Cho Management LP