Tsi Del Del is the name of our community in the Chilcotin language meaning Red Stone,” explains Chief Percy Guichon.“ The company started 19 years ago, “out of need to put our youth in the major forest industry that is operating around us, as a way of ensuring we had a company and meaningful way to manage Red Stone resources.” The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC) announced that Percy, Chief of the Alexis Creek Indian Band, and Tsi Del Del Enterprises of Chilanko Forks, B.C., won the FPAC/AFN Business Leadership Award. Chief Guichon was honoured on Jul 14, 2011, at the AFN General Assembly in Moncton.
“We have a forest license, which started out jointly with major licensee at Williams Lake, Jacobson’s Brothers, bought by Riverside, now owned by Tolko Industries. The goal has always been to keep generating employment for members,” says Guichon. “We have probably about 30 loggers and we operate in traditional territory with everything from skidders to hand buckers. Today we are fully engaged in all forestry operations including processors and bunchers.”
Tsi Del Dell is a road- side logging operation, stump-to-dump. “We have our own in-house forestry planning branch conducting block layout at pre-harvest, and now, including post-harvest silviculture operations, we are A to Z in forestry, including timber cruisers. We operate competitively on timber bids, often beating others rates on the bids.” The operations occur in the West Chilcotin area of B.C., and personnel in the company includes a key man educated as a Registered Forestry Technician who does all our consulting. Depending on project, we will consult others.”
The Tsi Del Dell success has spun off other Band-owned businesses, including logging truck owners and operators within the Band. The core of operations run from west of Williams Lake by about 2 hours. Percy explains, “The other major component to our winning the award is from a certain percentage of the profit income generated being incorporated into training and skills development in the company. “Fifty cents per Cubic Metre of harvest is put aside for training and schooling for Band members in post-secondary education and training.”
The program of further education has produced personnel with a forest technician diploma, while another Band member went all the way to get his masters in forestry, and the education component continues to grow. The Band is building capacity and social capital to prepare for new opportunities, including, “getting our more of our own Forest License.”
