Government

James Moore joins Dentons law firm

By Mary Beach /

THE#BCBIZDAILY
Plus, a plea to the Prime Minister from B.C.’s north coast, and awards for the Penticton Indian Band

Moore move
Former conservative MP and minister of industry James Moore joins the Vancouver office of Dentons as senior business advisor. Once known as the youngest cabinet minister in B.C., Moore announced this summer that he was leaving politics after five terms and 15 years in public life. In government, Moore worked with the Canada Space Agency, the Canada Tourism Commission, the Business Development Bank of Canada, Statistics Canada, the National Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Radio-television & Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and the Canada Foundation for Innovation. As regional minister for the province of B.C., he was also responsible for all Government of Canada appointments from the province. When he joins Dentons, Western Canada’s largest law firm, Moore will advise clients in British Columbia, across Canada and around the world. In a release, he said the firm’s “polycentric approach” drew him to the job. “As a local Vancouver law firm with an impressive national and global reach, they have the talent and the know-how to keep their clients ahead of the competition by helping them expand into new markets, or bring new business to B.C.” Moore joins Dentons on November 16.

Band business
For the Penticton Indian Band development corporation, 2015 is looking good. It has won two national awards: Economic Developer of the Year from the Council for the Advancement of Native Development Officers (CANDO) at the 22nd Annual National Conference and the 2015 Aboriginal Economic Development Corporation Award from the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business. As well, the band, with the largest reserve lands in B.C., is moving on multiple fronts to strengthen the community’s economy and culture. Within the past three years, it has opened a new $10-million community school and a state-of-the-art community health centre powered by geothermal energy. Then there’s the $7.4 million Satikw Crossing bridge project, set to open up 150 acres (60 hectares) of prime development land along Highway 97 and the Skaha Hills resort-residential development which will have 600 homes, a winery, golf course, walking and cycling trails when complete.

Mineral rights 
The Alaska Highway News has a feature on how two First Nations bands, the Blueberry River and Doig River First Nations, won a 75-year legal battle for the oil and gas located under their reserve. It’s a yarn that stretches back to a land swap for returning veterans in the aftermath of World War II, that cut local First Nations out of the windfall from an oil and gas bonanza that was legally theirs.