Bear Island Trading Post
By John Pliniussen, Nipissing University, 1995
Susan MacKenzie was reviewing the background information on her first project, the Bear Island Trading Post. As the newly hired small business consultant for the Union of Ontario Indians, her job for the next three months would involve helping local and regional businesses improve their operations. Susan felt fortunate in being selected for this summer position as it provided her a way of applying the skills she had been obtaining as a fourth-year business student enrolled at Nipissing University in North Bay, Ontario.
Since opening in the spring of 1985, the Bear Island Trading Post had been operating at a loss. At first, the Trading Post was subsidized by a federal grant through the Local Employment Assistance Program (LEAP). The Trading Post is currently being financed by the Temagami Indian Band. The Band would like repayment of this loan in the future and would somehow like to eliminate their financial obligation to the Trading Post, although they would prefer the store to remain on Bear Island. The Band Administrator contacted Susan in hopes that she could come up with a plan of action to improve operations.
Background
The Bear Island Trading Post is a small general store and marina. It was originally established as a Hudson's Bay Company Post in 1875. In 1974, the Hudson's Bay Company sold their property to the Zufelt family, who then renamed the store the Bear Island Bay Post. The Zufelts operated the store for seven years. During these seven years, the family experienced business problems, break-ins, and vandalism. In 1981, these obstacles forced the family to cease operations.
In 1981, the Temagami Indian Band purchased the property from the Zufelt family in hopes of providing economic development for Bear Island. In 1982, with the financial help of the Local Incentive Program, the Band constructed a dining hall on a piece of property that had been donated to them by a local camp. In 1984, the Band hired a national accounting firm to perform a feasibility analysis on redeveloping the property. With the assistance of another LEAP grant, the store and marina reopened for business under the name of the Bear Island Trading Post in the spring of 1985.
From the first day it opened, the Trading Post was not as financially successful as had been planned. In March 1989, the Temagami Indian Band hired NewStart Management Services (a consulting service) to address the concerns of the Trading Post.
Then in May 1989, the Temagami Indian Band also requested that a counsellor from Counselling Assistance to Small Enterprises of the Federal Business Development Bank make recommendations concerning the problems of the Trading Post. Unfortunately' both New-Start and the FBDB counselor were unsuccessful in improving the Trading Post's situation.
In the spring of 1991, the Temagami Indian Band leased the Trading Post marina to Rose McCleod, a local artist and hairdresser, who managed the marina until September 1992. At this time, the Temagami Indian Band withdrew the lease and began to operate the marina again because Rose had been ill for most of the summer and had to remain hospitalized for an unknown length of time.
