Six Nations of Grand River Territory – Six Nations Elected Council is pleased to announce the launch of community engagement to determine community support for the creation of an Alcohol Regulation and a Brewery at Six Nations.
Six Nations Economic Development was approached by IPA Enterprises Inc. of Waterloo,On with an economic opportunity to be a majority partner in the Brewery to be located at the Oneida Business Park. It is anticipated that this business will generate approximately $2.2 to $4 million in annual revenues for Six Nations within 4 years of operation. The Brewery expects to create approximately 145 jobs during this period. The creation of this project would also require a waterline expansion on Fourth Line from Stoneridge to Oneida Business Park, in which IPA Enterprises has dedicated $2 million dollars towards this initiative.
The Alcohol Regulation is being modeled after the Kahnawa:ke Alcohol Law. This regulation would require the formation of a commission composed of qualified Six Nations community members to issue and enforce alcohol permits within the community. This approach will allow Six Nations to control and regulate the production, distribution and sale of alcohol in the community. Contrary to popular belief, Six Nations has not officially been deemed a “Dry Community”.
The community engagement process has been designed to provide a balanced perspective of the issues, benefits and opportunities that these projects may include, and provides a community wide mechanism to gather feedback that will help guide the Six Nations Elected Council now and in the future.
“I encourage all of the community members to take part in this important process. Your opinion does matter and it is our hope that many people will come out to the community information sessions and also take part in the planned referendum.” said Chief Ava Hill.
The community engagement process will run from November 17th, 2014 to January 17th, 2015 and will conclude with a community Referendum to be held at the Six Nations community hall. Over the course of two months there will be three (3) community meetings and eight (8) information sessions for community members to attend for more information and discussion. The Community Meetings will be open forum meetings with a formal presentation and an open question and answer period. The information sessions are open house style forums with a personal one-on-one discussion with staff and representatives from IPA.
