I
t started as a potential bio-mass elec-
tricity contract. It ended as an economic
engine that has grossed $20-million and
counting, and filled much needed jobs in
B.C.’s resource development industry.
The Gitxsan Development Corporation
(GDC) was born of a relationship between
Rick Connors and the Gitxsan First Na-
tions of Northwestern B.C. It began when
Connors’ company needed bio-mass for
a potential project with BC Hydro in 2011.
Though that project didn’t come to fruition,
a friendship and insight between Connors
and leaders in the community did.
The Gitxsan chiefs and Connors did a
study looking into how the Gitxsan—and
their ample natural resources, large po-
tential workforce—could successfully
start business outside their community in
mainstream economic sectors such as re-
source extraction and development. What
that study concluded, in essence, was a
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