By Nigel Maxwell

P.A. business named business of the year

Dec 9, 2014 | 5:22 AM

Athabasca Basin Development is featured in this month’s edition of SaskBusiness Magazine.

The investment company, established in 2002, is owned by aboriginal communities in the North. Most of their work revolves around resource development.

“A lot of what we are weighing in on for business of the year is their philanthropic work that they do throughout the year, what they give back to their communities, what they are doing in their communities while they are conducting business,” said publisher Twila Redekopp.

Redekopp said Athabasca Basin Development has done a lot of work in the North. A most recent example of their work is a donation of $250,000 for the construction of cell towers in northern Saskatchewan. The donation will bring cellular service for the first time to Fond du Lac, Black Lake, Stony Rapids and Wollaston Lake.

Past winners of the award have included Cameco, Mosaic, and the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority.

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Redekopp said the decision process is not easy. The decisions are made internally.

“Sometimes we watch them over a couple years before they move up to the top three of whom we might want to pick.”

In the case of Athabasca Basin Development, the company has seen tremendous growth over the past decade, but it was their community service work that grabbed the magazine’s attention.

CEO Geoff Gay said he is honoured to receive the award. He added their long-term goal remains as it always has been, and that is to create wealth for future generations.

“We’re just in the early stages of that and we’re just at the point now where we think that given all the poverty and poor infrastructure in the region that we’re just to the point where as a company we can start to contribute to that with long-term employment, contributions to some good causes,” said Gay.

Gay said the key to their success has been that all their shareholders have remained unified over the past decade.

Moving forward Gay said they are always on the lookout for good quality, well-managed businesses.

“In order to have good strong financials, that generally means there is a good management team in place, so that’s really where our due diligence starts out,” he said.

nmaxwell@panow.com

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell