Budget increase for revenue unit

As a result of more involvement in major infrastructure projects, the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) has approved a nearly $1 million budget increase in the Revenue and Business Development Unit, a move that will allow for deeper investment in professional services.

The increase, which totals $975,805, will largely be spent on professional services, specifically consulting related to projects that the MCK is a stakeholder in, including the Hertel Transmission Line and the Des Cultures and Les Jardins wind farms.

Previously, the budget for professional services was only $250,000, a number that had to be increased with MCK’s growing investments in revenue-generating projects, said Keisha Goodleaf, MCK’s director of revenue and business development.

The unit contracts Plan A Capital, a financial consultancy firm based in Montreal, for its consulting needs related to those projects. Initially, MCK had planned to utilize the firm for the Hertel project, but expanded their use for other infrastructure projects.

“That obviously took a lot more time for them to look into our other projects, and I would say they’re subject matter experts on the projects we’re working on,” Goodleaf said.

The increase also reflects two potential requests for proposals that will be discussed with the community - one related to cannabis, and the other related to tolls. While no immediate action is being taken on either of those topics, Goodleaf said that the Council table wanted to have space in the budget to be flexible.

“We put it in the budget so that when they decide to explore it, we’ll have the funds for it,” she said.

Early discussions on other infrastructure projects, including potential renewable energy projects, are also accommodated for in the budget increase - Goodleaf added that the current Council is focused on investing in revenue-generating opportunities to grow the community’s wealth.

“We’re looking at developing relationships with surrounding communities and just being able to contribute to our revenue and business development mandate, which is to really help increase the community’s own-source revenue,” she said. “By looking at a bunch of different projects, that really helps us reach and meet that mandate.”

She said that by making budget increases now, the unit increases its chances of growing wealth in future.

“We don’t invest in high-risk projects, the returns aren’t crazy amounts, but it is going to help us be able to bring in money and have funds down the road for projects or programs or services that we don’t currently have funds for,” she said.

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