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However, the First Nation, which is located 70 kilometres southeast of Prince Albert, would need a partner on the venture — someone with money and who knew about medical imaging.

“We find a partner and the first thing we tell them is, ‘Look, we’re a First Nation, we don’t have much money here other than the money that we receive from Canada, but that’s not for business investments,’ ” Seib said. “We don’t have a pot of money that we can just invest in businesses.”

Rob Clarke, who was the Member of Parliament for northern Saskatchewan at the time and friends with the James Smith Cree Nation chief, agreed there were opportunities for the First Nation to be involved in private-pay MRI. He floated the idea while at a business meeting in Niagara Falls and found an interested ear in Dragan Racic, who heads Tesla Energy Institute Research Development Innovation Incorporated Inc, an applied research company that was founded there in 2015.

Racic says he has previous experience in medical imaging and used to work for the United Nations and World Health Organization, which made him well suited to help the First Nation navigate the bureaucratic red tape necessary to licence a private pay clinic.

He said his company has previously partnered with First Nations in Guatemala and Ontario and was excited about the opportunity to partner with James Smith Cree Nation.

“My intention in all of this, and as a person, to assist them with the clinic, was to give them the same opportunity as somebody else to have a private MRI/CT set up in Saskatchewan,” Racic said.