Urban reserves outside of Winnipeg provide economic opportunities for First Nations
Native-owned gas bars near city thrive - Aboriginal clients, First Nations benefit from special tax discounts
By Alexandra Paul - Jan 3 2008
Deanna Larocque fills a customer's gas tank at the Red Sun gas bar and convenience store in Highway 6.
BUSINESS is good for the latest urban reserve on the outskirts of Winnipeg, with 80 to 85 per cent of customers drawn from First Nations people attracted by deep tax discounts.
Some live in the city and others are from the 64 First Nations in Manitoba. All carry status Indian cards that make them eligible for discounts -- 13 per cent on a $10 pack of cigarettes and 11.5 cents per litre at the pumps.
Red Sun Smoke Shop and Gas Bar opened a month ago on an urban reserve Roseau River First Nation Chief Terry Nelson won by threatening a rail blockade last summer to get land the Crown first promised in 1871.
"It's doing all right," Nelson said of the Red Sun outlet. "The only days sales were down were Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Nobody was moving around. Other than that, it's really (growing) stronger."
Red Sun is a $1.5 million station that opened Nov. 27 on Highway 6 at Junction 236, less than a kilometre from the Perimeter Highway.
The busiest sales are late at night when it's typical to see 20 vehicles at the gas pumps in a single hour, Red Sun cashier Cory Littlejohn said.
Half a dozen incidents in which thieves drove away without paying for gas prompted Red Sun to install a $10,000 security system last week. Fifteen cameras keep a digital eye on the pumps now.
Red Sun is the second gas station to open on urban reserve land on the outskirts of Winnipeg in the last two years. Both are open 24/7 and offer the same discounts to Manitoba's status Indian cardholders.
Arboc Smoke Shop and Gas Bar opened on urban reserve land owned by Swan Lake First Nation in Headingley on Nov. 18, 2006. It's on the Trans-Canada Highway, a few kilometres west of Winnipeg's Perimeter Highway.
Arboc owner Larry Soldier said he welcomes the competition with Red Sun. His sales didn't dip when Red Sun opened and he doesn't expect they will.
"The market in Winnipeg is sizable," Soldier said. "There's room for five or six more gas stations in Winnipeg."
Winnipeg has one of the largest urban populations of aboriginal people in Canada. Conservative estimates based on national census figures indicate at least 60,000 aboriginal people live here.
At Red Sun, Transcona resident David Lavallee has filled up three times and used his status card every time.
"It's not a big deal on taxes," Lavallee said, considering aboriginal people once owned all of Canada.
"We have to keep our rights. Look at what everybody else got -- the whole country," he said. "We have to support native business."
Business is one route out of poverty for First Nations, Lavallee said.
The Red Sun gas station is the first business planned for an eventual $40 million commercial development on the urban reserve.
The 11.5-cent rebate at the gas pumps goes straight to consumers, as does the 13 per cent tax discount on smokes, gas station managers and owners in both locations said.
There's also an incentive for First Nations -- they get $36 from every carton of cigarettes sold. That's a tax rebate to First Nations under agreements signed with government, a provincial spokesman said.
The money supplements federal funding and provides a small but significant revenue stream.