Located on Second Avenue, the Nation is looking forward to all the positive work that will be done from this new building

By Tommy Osborne

Yekooche Nation

Yekooche First Nation opens new building in Prince George

Nov 27, 2024 | 5:05 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The Yekooche First Nation saw a big upgrade recently, as it moved into a new building in Prince George. Located on 466 Second Avenue, The location is much bigger than the Nation’s previous location on First Avenue, allowing the Nation to greatly expand its operations and services it can provide.

“With this building, we’re expanding in capacity, developing other scopes that we need to do that our old space couldn’t give us the opportunity to do,” said the Nation’s CAO Anthony Okechukwu.

One of the biggest benefits of the new building in Prince George is being able to solve problems in Yekooche Nation far quicker. If an issue arises, such as power, water, telephone services, or anything else, having this building in Prince George will help the Nation solve problems in a timely manner. Given that Yekooche Nation is three hours away from Prince George, this new location overcomes the significant hurdle of distance when it comes to solving problems.

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“A lot of our industry partners are here, banks are here, and a lot of professionals like our executives are here. We need work being done here, as much as we’d like it to be in community, it’s more convenient in this location,” said Yekooche Nation Chief Mitchell Joseph.

Beyond the ability to address issues quickly, Joseph added the Nation will now be able to provide many other services to members in Prince George, saying it could provide “basically everything.”

“We have our education, we have our finances, we have management, and our economic development company will be running out of this location,” Joseph said.

Not only is the Nation three hours away from Prince George, it’s also 1.5 hours away from Fort St. James, meaning the Yekooche First Nation is quite rural. Because of this, both Joseph and Okechukwu believe the Nation has been overlooked.

“Yekooche has not been in the limelight in terms of business within the Indigenous space and the industry partners and governments. But right now, with this building, it’s going to create and give people the confidence that Yekooche is here to stay. Yekooche is open doing business, Yekooche is here to engage with the people and also open up our arms in welcoming people to come and work with us,” Okechukwu said.

“Since I became the Chief here, we set out on a mission to become a part of this world,” Joseph said.

The building only opened recently so work is still being done, but operations are already underway as the Yekooche Nation members settle into a much bigger and better location.

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