After 200 years in Mistissini, the store now run by Northern is packing it in.
The North West Co. decided to close its store after Mistissini decided July 1 to turn down the company’s request for $1 million to keep the store open.
Chief William Mianscum said Northern can’t be bailed out when struggling local businesses are told to make it on their own. “To come in and throw $1 million to Northern, that wouldn’t have looked good at all,” he said.
“I have mixed feelings (about the departure). I was thinking back to how the Bay (Northern’s predecessor) was set up off the sweat of the brow of our own ancestors—just thinking of how our people really built this company.
“Perhaps the people who will be hurt most will be the Elders in the community.”
Ten permanent jobs will be lost when the store shuts its doors July 7. Northern tried for two years to convince the Band Council to join it in a joint venture and spend $900,000 to $1 million on renovations to the aging building. The company claimed it was losing $200,000 every year in Mistissini.
Last year, Winnipeg-based North West Co. reported $586 million in sales, with a profit of $16 million.
Chief Mianscum said the Cree-Naskapi Act prevents Cree bands from entering joint ventures on a commercial basis.
He also expressed concern about who will clean up a toxic chunk of lakeside Category III property owned by Northern. Cas depots have made this the most polluted site in James Bay, a study has found.
Northern refuses to say if it will help pay for a cleanup. “I think that’s a point that could be debated,” said Jim Deyell, Northern’s regional manager.
“Depending on what Northern wants to do,” responded Chief Mianscum, “it could be a quiet closing of an era, or maybe they want to go out with a bang.”
He said Northern’s problems started when a Caisse Populaire was set up in Mistissini, costing Northern its monopoly control over the community’s money. Plus, Northern didn’t do enough to keep customers coming back, despite the growth in Crees’ disposable income over the last 20 years, said the Chief.
Deyell said another problem was growing competition from Chibougamau and locally-owned Meechum Store. “It leads to the consumer having a heyday. If you go to a competitive situation like that we can’t survive,” he said.
Asked whether Northern was engaged in a price war with Meechum, Deyell said, “We have a large investment in the communities and we have to protect that. We will meet competition. We will not start a price war because it’s not a win situation.”
Is he sad about leaving? “We had to make a decision based on economics in the end,” he said. “But for that length of time (the 200 years), yes, the Elders, we’ve had a long association with them.”
Chief Mianscum said the pullout creates interesting economic opportunities for Mistissini. Some options: setting up a general co-op store; helping current Northern employees set up a new store; or moving other businesses into the building.
The community will discuss its options at an upcoming seminar organized by the band.
