Alkali Resource Management Limited, owned by the community of Esk’etemc, received a 2020 Indigenous Business Award.
They won the prestigious Community-Owned Business of the Year honor.
Forest Manager Gord Chipman said the company manages a 27,000 hectare Community Forest, 60,000 hectare First Nation Wooland Tenure, 400-hectare woodlot as well as several other forest licenses on behalf of the community of Esk’etemc.
“We will do timber development, we will do ecosystem restoration work, we have five different
loggers, a lot of different truck drivers from Williams Lake, and we have a biomass company and a whole bunch of tree spacers that work with us all year long. So we’re pretty busy managing the forest”.
Chipman added receiving this award was something both the company and community could share.
“It’s great recognition for the company and for the entire community really. We employee upwards of a hundred different people every year and over the last four months we had anywhere between 30 and 50 people working for us on any given day”.
Chipman said the official announcement was made Monday but he originally found out about it a couple of weeks ago and it was hard to keep it a secret from the staff.
The Indigenous Business Award program was launched in 2008 to honor and celebrate business excellence and, in its 12th year, boasts over 200 remarkable businesses within its alumni.