Indigenous urban business initiatives growing as demographics shift
CALGARY — Bulldozers and excavators are cutting a broad swath through the reserve land of the Tsuut’ina in southwest Calgary as part of a transformative project gets underway.
The push to finish the city’s ring road has meant a $340.7 million payment to the First Nation for the land, and has helped create opportunities for economic reconciliation, said Lee Crowchild, chief of the Tsuut’ina.
“This is about Tsuut’ina moving forward into the future,” he said, sitting in the hotel restaurant of the Grey Eagle Casino, the First Nation’s well-established operation that it is planning to expand upon.
“We’ve been through this dark period, now we’re coming back.”