Lac La Ronge Indian Band Getting into Fur Buying

Lac La Ronge Indian Band Getting into Fur Buying

Tuesday, January 06, 2004 at 14:39

The Lac La Ronge Indian Band is putting the finishing touches on a fur-buying enterprise that it says will give northern trappers more money for their pelts.

Right now, most of the North’s trappers are sending their pelts to private buyers in La Ronge, Stanley Mission, Prince Albert and Meadow Lake.

But by the end of next month, the La Ronge band expects to be offering trappers as much as 25 per cent more money for their pelts through a band-managed fur buying outlet.

Band spokesman Henry McKenzie says because the band will set up the venture as a non-profit corporation, it will have the ability to offer more money for fur.

McKenzie says the band initially had its own trappers in mind when it came up with the idea, but now wants to provide this option to all northern trappers.

The band has already obtained a fur buying licence and is currently finalizing a business plan.

McKenzie says the band will send representatives to the upcoming annual meeting of northern trappers to see if they’re interested in turning the enterprise into a co-op owned by the trappers themselves.