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Chief Christian Sinclair, OCN, National Access Cannabis
[00:00:06] My name is Christian Sinclair, Director of National Access Cannavis. Our company reaped the benefits of getting in on the industry as a first mover, recognizing that the government said it was going to be legalized and indigenous people would be part of it. But if we would have waited for government we'd still be waiting on the sidelines today. The challenges of the different provincial jurisdictions. That's where it gets tricky. So for us we looked into alone instead of getting caught up in all that political rhetoric. Let's just get involved in the mainstream and get sort of the public TSX process that then takes us away from our first issue and allows us to participate right across the country. And that's what it's allowed us to do. Taking it to the committee like I said with elders first and the once our leadership and was our corporation they were with us all along the way in understanding what this business was was what it meant. And recognizing that there was that stigma still so you had to work against that. But for us, I was fortunate because our elders and our leaders bought into it right away and they saw the potential of it, recognizing between numbers of where we were and where it could be based on the experience and research we conducted in the US with Colorado Oregon Washington and then California. And it's been nothing but a steep trajectory of growth. So saying that's going to apply here on a small scale but nonetheless the fundamentals should be the same.
[00:01:20][74.5]
[00:01:22] OCN became recognized as the leader in economic element as it relates to cannabis on the retail side,on the investment side and now that we're are now going international puts us in a very unique position and that's drawing attention from other indigenous groups in the US as well, on how we can roll this out and make sure that model and partner with other groups we never thought possible before. Well it all comes down to the support of the community and the leadership of the team and their business acumen. So we've made it a very clear distinction between our Development Corporation, which is business, our politics and our administration. We don't go get involved in the miniscule micromanagement issues of the administration. And we don't have any say on the corporation itself will give direction and support and say you'll consider this and what do you think do your due diligence apply your knowledge and come back and see what makes sense. So we've kind of helped steer them a bit. And ultimately it comes to going after lobbying efforts a function of partners working together making it, because ultimately it benefits everybody within our nation and for us, it's worked very well but unfortunately like I said was I inheriting a government that was the biggest deficit in its history corporation was near bankruptcy so I have to consolidate debt and pay off outstanding debt that accumulate over years. So a lot of our profits have already gone to stabilize our financing our treasury and now going into this new fiscal year will now be able to start seeing some of those benefits that we can invest into our community;
[00:02:55][93.5]
[00:02:56] on a social front, from you know language revitalization, investing into our Education Department, support for elders youth chief and council, youth initiatives, future economic development spinoffs, and really anything that's related in social new infrastructure housing and such. That's where we're putting our money towards. When we made our first investment of 3 million dollars. We actually were prepared to invest 6 million into a National Access Cannabis which was The medicinal side of the company and they've now since created Mdta which is the retail division of that company knowing that cannabis was gonna be legalized. So our three million dollar investment we've made we've gotten that back in the first year less than a year, we've paid off that initial investment and our share value right now it's hovering around 6 7 million dollars. If we were to sell all our assurance that's just pure profit. But we know that there's a long term growth on that and that's going to grow significantly over the next 2 3 years. So it's a long term investment for us. But as we make those strategic sales of shares when needed as in all Pacific it's tied into our Conference of Community Plan I will then say Okay the people have asked for a youth center or an elder center or an elders care center or a waterpark, whatever and may be that's where we start strategically selling those shares based on the higher value as they accumulate over time, and tied into our community's infrastructure and social needs as well as reinvesting some of it into other areas to diversify. Absolutely for us and it's because it's put past my creation back on a map to be able to clean up our debts to be able to get into a new initiative right at the forefront. No different than the prohibition of alcohol when it was legalized.
[00:04:33][96.7]
[00:04:34] That's where we are with cannabis today. So to be at the forefront of that, and be given that opportunity that hasn't been afforded to us before in the past since the fur trade really, we're now able to make some very big gains and penetrate those markets that we never had a chance to before, on a very high level with partners that are very smart, brilliant in their own right with understanding industry finance, business acumen but also being open to sharing that with us as a First Nation how we share our cultural awareness and values with each other. So that we're growing and developing together so there's synergies that are there. To give you an example in the company won more retail licenses than they expected very early, they needed a loan, so under their traditional business development they went out to the market to try and secure funds. Really. Because we're still new into it initially. Banks really didn't step up to provide financing so track creation was our ability to borrow money from the first nations financial authority. We said well let's borrow 35 million. Give them a short term loan. The company was able to pay that back in three and a half months. Plus with interest and loan fees. So we did very well with that very quickly based on that move, we've attracted the attention of company from the United States and said they've never seen a move like that. So they approached us and we are now sitting on that board as a major shareholder at 20 percent with five major shareholders.
[00:05:55][81.4]
[00:05:56] And that's going to allow us to go global with a specialty finance company known as Tricom Financial which again is a first of its kind. So when we made the first deal with National Access Cannabis it was the first deal a deal of its kind were a First Nation was a majority shareholder. We've now done it. With Tricom twice in one year and we've made a strategic investment as a value investor with a company called Alternate Health operating in the state of California but trading on the Canadian Stock Exchange. So we've done it three times in one year. [00:05:56][0.0]
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