Police academy training works hands on in Winnipeg

NorthWest Law Enforcement Academy, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, was started by Herb Stephen, former Chief of Police in the City of Winnipeg, explains Stan Payne, Managing Director and Registrar, “Former Police Chief Stephen found candidates for recruitment were not well prepared to make application for duty, and no opportunities existed for them to seek out an education for a career in law enforcement,” and that’s when Stephen formed NWLEA ten years ago.

“We have put through 500 students in the past ten years, graduating from a seven-month program that is approved by the Department of Advanced Education in the Province of Manitoba,” operating under the Private Vocational Institution's Act, says Payne. “Courses are taught by former law enforcement officers in classes running five hours per day, three intakes per year, including April, September, and October.”

All three intakes per year contain the same curriculum. April and September intakes are morning classes from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., and the October intake runs classes from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.. Students come from across Canada from Newfoundland to Vancouver. The majority are from Manitoba.

Stephen’s academy went to police agencies with inquires about putting together a curriculum based on the growing demand for trained candidate-recruits. “This seven-month post-secondary program carries no guarantees of hiring for law enforcement duty, however, recruitment and hiring occurs in municipal police services, RCMP, Corrections Canada, and Border Services, and Sheriffs offices across the country.”

The NWLEA works a lot in First Nation and Aboriginal recruitment, “We usually average two Aboriginal students per class, at least six graduating per year. Students across the board come from both genders, although 80 percent are male and 20 percent are female.” Payne says the average age of recruits has been increasing in the past two years. “It was average age 19 up until two years ago. Now we are seeing 24 to 30 year old recruits.”

The staff complement at NWLEA is made up of teacher/instructors who have retired from police agencies in Winnipeg, or England, or the RCMP, Corrections Canada, or Border Services. The student who is accepted into the program pays a fee of $7815.00, all-inclusive, with registration uniform, text books, and tuition.

Payne says, “We take individuals up to a week before each course. They must have grade 12, good physical health, no criminal record, and go through our screening process, including four essays that are written during the process, and an in-depth interview.” They are screened with two references, a medical examination, and a criminal record check.

Payne notes, “First Nations are often Band-funded into the Law Protections and Safety Diploma training program. They may proceed to recruitment in Aboriginal policing units or may be trained for employment in outside agencies, security services, government agencies, and individual Bands. Other employment is found in Manitoba government agencies. Most of our Aboriginal candidates are from Ontario and Manitoba. We also customize courses that meet specific requirements.” A current website takes applications electronically, and international students have come to the academy in the past, “but visas are a difficulty.”

Eight shareholders own the academy that is run by a board of directors, “Things are looking well, we have had success thus far. Our September class is expected to be full. We are effective but our teachers make it clear that this is not a replacement for recruit training.” Even so, the curriculum is detailed and hands on in role-playing. Self-defense and martial arts techniques are also taught in the program.

The academy teaches through three basic curriculum streams, including: 1. Law, Protection and Safety Diploma Program; 2. The Certificate Programs were created for those individuals seeking a career in Law Enforcement who: are not planning to complete a diploma program; do not plan to complete a diploma program immediately; want training is specific areas of law enforcement;  3. Aboriginal Police Training; 4. Professional training for government agencies, and private companies also available on-demand.

Payne says, “First Nations and Metis communities bear the brunt of Canada's rising crime rate and it is apparent to community leaders that provincial and federal governments cannot provide them with the protection and security they need and deserve.” Payne says, "As Aboriginal communities move closer and closer to true self-government, providing protection and safety to community members will become a top priority. Without security of the people within a community, there can be no effective government."

This program is designed, he says, "to help meet the needs of the Aboriginal community. Northwest Law Enforcement Academy has developed Band Constable Training - Level One, Level Two, Level Three, plus Community Police Training, and Police Commission Training.” 

Housing a not-forgotten issue in Manitoba

Darcy Wood is engaged in policy-making of housing at Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, “We develop housing and infrastructure policies related to First Nation housing and infrastructure. Our programs and policies relate to the ability to meet the needs in communities, and policies arise from the demographics. Our strategy is based on scenarios that include 18 people to a house in communities like Pukatawagon, where people take shifts sleeping.”

Urgency is an understatement with population growing at 2.5 percent per month. “We identified the number of houses on reserve as of May 2011. We found Manitoba has average housing density at 2.5 per household, whereas First Nations averaged 5.7 per household, almost triple the density.” Wood says, “We need 30,000 houses. We also identified the number of adequate houses, and the number of houses with repairs required.”

Wood said, “Major renovations are required and we identified a cost of about $40,000 per unit in repairs, in addition to minor repairs. We have 1,300 condemned units still occupied. The housing backlog has been identified.” Housing costs present AMC with daunting figures, “It costs $150,000 per house to build, and there will be additional costs of $25,000, depending on location,” says Wood. 

“We identified $2.7 billion required for First Nation housing in Manitoba alone.” Wood says, “No government’s gonna do that,” candidly. Indeed, says Wood, “We receive an average of about $22 million per year for housing (or $30 million in a good year), and 80 percent goes to building supplies.”

In a bid to maximize the impact of the money, Nelson House Cree Nation formed Meetah Building Supplies about ten years ago within Nelson House Development Corporation, David Kobliski, general manager. “We are very humble operation, Kobliski says. “Gert Wilzer runs a bulk building purchase program for supplies, and Bands can save 30 percent in the purchase price of building materials and supplies. We opened a Meetah franchise in Onion Lake, Saskatchewan, two years ago.”

Kobliski says, “We structured ourselves to purchase directly though a buying group. Bands buy at reduced cost and Meetah supplies training to on-reserve labour, building the social capital of the First Nations by creating skilled labour. Previous suppliers would come in, drop off materials, and leave, so this is an improved use of the funding .”

Thus, “We purchase direct and pay less and have money to operate the lumber yard, employ community members. We have big populations to serve, and we manufacture doors and cabinets in Nelson House,” more employed skill labour, creating social capital that is needed in capacity building.

Twelve people are employed in manufacturing at Meetah. “We are currently discussion with other First Nations to offer the same opportunities as we have, and the primary benefit is the transfer of knowledge and creation of skills, making employment opportunities in building houses. We have Red Seal apprenticeship carpenter training at the Nelson House facility graduating a few apprentices every year.

“NCN Builders at Nelson House is a Band-owned company that constructs houses. We offer two packages, one is a house with materials , the other is a supplied and constructed house, so one package is supplying the building materials and one is supplying labour with the materials.” They build on reserve housing, an average of 15 units per year. 

“Project development is portable and the other thing we do is build houses for the real estate market in Thompson, Manitoba, design, build, and sell them. The company is doing commercial building, as examples, a restaurant and personal care home in Nelson House.”

The Nelson House company employs 15 full time employees. Onion Lake’s Meetah Building Supplies run their own operations ranging all over Saskatchewan from Onion Lake. “We have non-competition agreements,” said Kobliski, “and strategies in the sales are based on that arrangement.”

Mortgage financing inter-urban First Nations

Harry DeLeeuw, Co- Chair of Manitoba Tipi Mitawa says a partnership between the Manitoba Real Estate Association and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs operating with funding for a pilot project is putting home ownership into First Nation hands in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with a project that promises province-wide participation. “We have six families settled in homes in Winnipeg and two more are currently looking for their ideal home,” says Harry DeLeeuw, of the program three years in the making. 

 

“We based the program on how to convert rental subsidies into mortgage subsidies. The goal is to provide family stability where the applicants can choose the area in which they wish to live with no restrictions. Home ownership equates to stability and community values.” DeLeeuw says, “This program is has been well received, both locally and nationally. Our initial goal is for 40 homes in the Province. The province requested a pilot project of five homes and then supplied partial funding for an additional 5-7 homes. The Provincial and Federal Governments, through the HomeWorks initiative provide the major funding for the down payments and the mortgage subsidies, while the Manitoba Real Estate Association provided over $300,000 for the down payments as well as providing the staff and initial administration expenses.

Harry DeLeeuw says, “The government is committed to the benefits of home ownership where needed. The project is considered as a possible national program for financing home purchases for aboriginal families in urban areas. The provincial and federal governments cooperated on HomeWorks jointly. A newly announce program called Frameworks will provide a further $62 million over 3 years and replaces HomeWorks. These are funds provided by both the Provincial and Federal governments.” 

 

DeLeeuw says, “We provide a 15 percent down payment with a monthly subsidy of mortgage averaging $440 per month over a locked-in 10-year mortgage. The payments remain constant over the full ten years so that the families can properly budget. Applicants must attend a 10 week financial management program provided by SEED Winnipeg and go through a CMHC home maintenance program. In addition, they must qualify for mortgage financing with Assiniboine Credit Union.” 

DeLeeuw notes that the program has parameters required by Manitoba Housing. “Currently, the maximum house price cannot exceed $180,000 and total family income qualifications fall between $25000 and $54,000 per year.” Manitoba Tipi Mitawa is a provincial organization and the goal is to provide homeownership in all Manitoba urban centres. “In conjunction with Seed Winnipeg, Manitoba Tipi Mitawa is looking to provide the financial management course via the internet in the foreseeable future as this has been an impediment to bringing the program province wide..”

The program is designed to break the cycle of poverty by using home ownership as an equity builder. In additions, the program takes advantage of all the benefits of home ownership including  family stability, pride of ownership, capacity building, financial management and self image.

Opposition to Compliance’s Raven project appears universal

Lands and waters of the Inside Passage on the west coast had two national entities. The Coast Salish from mid-Vancouver Island to the Malahat on the south who would face Kwak Kwak A’wak tribes directly to the north. The Salish Sea of the Inside Passage was their seafood banquet from time immemorial. At the north end of the Salish Sea the Pentlatch people were of the Coast Salish Nation.

Coast Salish did vigorous trade in the Pacific Coast economy. They were large and self-sufficient as a nation with wealth unsurpassed from Fraser sockeye salmon runs. They traded competitively with Potlatch nations like Makah (or other Nuu Chah Nulth), Kwak Kwak Awak, Haida, Tsimshian, and Gitxsan.

Potlatch contained a system of ownership protocols, identifications of wealth garnered from trade. Everything was recorded in elaborate ‘art’ that was actually advanced hieroglyphics. The only misfortune of the Pentlatch was to occupy a territory holding fossil fuel for it made them a target on their own property of millennial concern. Coal was ‘discovered’ and a coal rush began.

The Pentlatch collective might have been extinguished except blood lines escaped the onslaught of disease and rampant dislocation to live with K’Moks people a short distance to the north of traditional Pentlatch homes in Union Bay and Fanny Bay and lands that climb away to the west on Vancouver Island.

The nightmare for Pentlatch occurred when coal was king. As time passed so did the coal industry from the Cumberland area, and new industries long since emerged, including a flourishing shellfish industry involving K’Moks and Pentlatch families in their traditional waters of Bayne Sound.

Therefore the provincial government is hearing a well-spring of concerns about such matters as traditional rights and title and imminent concerns over settling the First Nation land claims around proposed coal properties, concerns that have to be addressed before king coal returns to wreak havoc again with Pentlatch and K’Moks people. 

On June 28, 2011, K’Moks First Nation declared opposition to Compliance Energy Raven Project, as reported in Comox Valley Echo, a regional newspaper. “K'ómoks First Nation has come out in opposition to the proposed Raven Coal Mine near Fanny Bay,” says the report. “It not only has serious concerns over the environmental impact a mine could have, but also believes the project will be harmful to ongoing K'ómoks treaty negotiations and aboriginal rights.”

The Band's chief negotiator, Mark Stevenson, noted in the press release that the K’Moks intends to become owner of 90 hectares (220 acres) of Crown land between the proposed mine site and Fanny Bay as part of an eventual treaty settlement, and that any mine would, "severely restrict the use of any land added to the K'ómoks land deal in treaty talks.”

 Indeed, K’Moks expresses concerns whether land acquired will be environmentally compromised and untenable for any useful purpose. Issues like quality of the local aquifers and creeks in the immediate area are crucial to K'ómoks people as well as many others, said Stevenson. The K’Moks earmarked Tsable River and Cowie Creek drainage systems, in particular, “Water rights on those two watercourses are part of ongoing negotiations.”

The negotiator said that regard should be paid to waters (including Tsable and Cowie Creek) that empty into Baynes Sound, furthermore, where K’Moks and many growers operate significant shellfish aquaculture interests. K’Moks expects to add more shellfish operations when a treaty is signed. Stevenon stated that promoters of the mine had, “shown no interest in aboriginal and treaty rights. We want to set the record straight. We cannot support any project that hurts K'ómoks' long-term interests."

The K’Moks people are not alone in opposition. Baynes Sound coal mine opposition has been called 'unprecedented, in headlines carried in the Comox Valley Record, June 30, 2011. Reports said over 2500  people submitted comments about the proposed Raven underground coal mine near Baynes Sound during a 40-day public comment period. Overall public meetings about the mine drew a combined total of about 1,500 people in Courtenay, Port Alberni and Union Bay.

Organizations from the B.C. Shellfish Growers Association to the Port Alberni and District Labour Council to the K’ómoks First Nation — a diverse group of organizations and people are standing against this project,” the report said, and, ”of the over 2500 submitted comments, over 95 percent were voicing serious concerns about environment or opposed the project.”

John Tapics, President and CEO of Compliance Energy, recently stated that an independent feasibility study was a significant step forward. He said the study confirms the long term financial viability of the Raven project which is achievable with responsible environmental and social considerations. “We are pleased with the plan developed in the Feasibility Study . . .  and look forward to our next phase of progressing forward through the coordinated Provincial-Federal environmental approval processes."

The Feasibility Study concludes that the Project (100% basis) is financially attractive with an estimated pre-tax NPV (8% discount rate) of CDN$378 million at an average realized coal price of CDN$174 per tonne (prices are FOB Port Alberni). The Project returns a non-levered, pre-tax discounted cash flow-internal rate of return of 28.7%.

Opposition mounts even if the numbers look good. John Snyder of CoalWatch Comox Valley said public and email submissions are showing an amazing amount of opposition. “I was at all three public meetings, where 1,500 went to public meetings and 200 signed on to make their statements public. Of all 200 only one spoke in favour. We are being spun as a vocal minority but that is totally false.”

The common thread is, “We don’t see the proposed project as a future vision for our communities,” said Snyder, “The coal mine is on the east side of Vancouver Island, and they plan to transport the coal 80 km to Port Alberni. Both Fanny Bay and Port Alberni citizens have been joined by Island-wide opposition.”

There is the green factor to consider, says Snyder, that B.C. is willing to export a huge amount of coal, most to Pacific Rim countries, whereas it is illegal to burn coal for energy in B.C.. “The government wants to paint themselves green when they export the problems contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.”

Snyder notes that Port Alberni has fallen on hard times with the downturn in forestry so the city is trying to reinvent itself. “It’s boom and bust in Port Alberni, however, the District Labour Council has passed unanimous motion to oppose the project. They say a handful of jobs at port facility doesn’t outweigh the negatives.”

The negatives they say are 3 trucks per hour, 24/7, 365 days a year, trucking in a circuitous route, going in loaded, coming out empty on the transportation corridor, “which is looking at 150 trucks per day going past your front door.” Snyder adds, “People in favour say, well, in the old logging days we had a lot of trucks. Don’t forget normal traffic and a lot of tourists also have to use the corridor.”

Snyder’s group says, “Port Alberni has air quality issues, winter temperature inversions, trapping pollutants. The project adds up to a couple hundred jobs at the mine site, trucking jobs, and the shipping terminus for the metallurgical bituminous coal product in Port Alberni. Complaince obtained a property in which coal is owned outright, so no royalties accrue to the province. The property is part of the old Dunsmuir deal,” dating back to the end of Pentlatch communities. “All the underground rights went into the building of the railroad to ship the coal.”

Raven Mine will have a 3100 hectare underground footprint, said Snyder," and a 200 hectare above ground footprint. Fifty-six percent of the raw coal mined will be left on the surface as waste rock, and the remaining forty-four percent will be shipped for export. Other deposits are in sight so this is a foot in the door.” He suggests part of the environmental assessment should be inclusive of other deposits within  Compliance Energy's 29,000 hectare coal tenure in the Comox Valley.

“We sent a request for an Independent Review Panel to then-federal Minister of the Environment Jim Prentice last August, explaining why we thought it is necessary for Independent Review Panel. The time line for the 16 year mine would begin in 2013,” although that may be less than completely feasible.

Pat Alfred Memorial Potlatch

 Pat Alfred's Memorial Potlatch took place mid-spring 2011 in Alert Bay, B.C., and the gathering came to the Big House of the Namgis Nation on Cormorant Island. The Alfred family was preparing the Potlatch for late April or May, and the Alfreds received a lot of community support. They gave a treasure of memories and gifts in return.
 

The passing of Pat Alfred came as a blow to the community when he died by accident on the Inside Passage. He was 75 years old when it happened and Pat was working in the depth of a winter night as  another member of a fishing crew in the herring fishery.  When the herring boat called the Westisle was hauling in a catch at about midnight January 7, 2008, Pat was swept away to die by hypothermia and drowning in the waters beside Vancouver Island.
 

It happened because the ball of herring took off into a panicky swim and pitched the loaded vessel to its side so fast nobody wore the safety suits. Watching his crew mates struggled to gain a way out of the deadly situation, Pat Alfred, esteemed Namgis Elder, lifelong fisherman, important First Nation Canadian citizen, waved the crewmen away to their own salvation. Pat's body was found the next day on the shores of another Inside Passage island. His family and 400 mourners laid Pat to rest the following January 12th, in Alert Bay, BC.. 

Pat was an Elder who believed in the work of the commercial fishery in Coastal First Nations. He was known as a man who was able to preserve a vestige of a formerly prosperous occupation. He had served as an elected chief, was holder of Hereditary Title, and Pat raised a family in Alert Bay with his wife Pauline. In his life, as in his passing, the world changed under his feet, and the traditional ways of his people as gregarious and successful commercial fishers collapsed along the coast.

Before his life, his forefathers fought a secret battle to preserve Kwakwala-speaking culture. The government had outlawed their system of binding society. Potlatch preparation takes immense energy from a group known as Homatsa, a secret society of warriors whose skills include carving. Pat was never a carver. He was born in the middle of the Canadian government's effort to extinguish First Nation culture. 

Pat's sons are carvers. One is Wayne Alfred, renowned master carver who exacts images of old from photographs and artifacts. Pat's grandson, Marcus Alfred, developed his skills since childhood and has become a highly proficient carver following the guidance of masters like his father, and Beau Dick. These cultural artisans are inspired by Potlatch as they carve in a language that seems to make profound statements that have no meaning to anybody but God anymore.

The world today is allowed to marvel without understanding the complexity of the sign language found on the west coast. At Pat's upcoming Potlatch the community will witness a pole-raising ceremony, Pat's memorial pole. This pole is presently being written like a Talmud that supports the oral tradition of Pat's heritage. The carvers dig into the past to make actual pieces that express great heaps of tradition knowledge. A language once removed may actually someday be restored! 

In days of old the highest achievers in a Potlatch culture were artists and artisans, and the compositions were knowledge banks, like books. These compositions described who was doing what (and where they did it) for their livelihood. This region of the world was rich in processed goods long before European merchandise was traded.

The riches came from cultivating the 'tree of life' (they called it) and designing their lives around cedar and seafood.  Eight Potlatch nations on the coast each had their own sets of autonomous collectives. Beau Dick, Homatsa chief, says the autonomous collectives operated like leagues, “often competitively.” A system of hereditary clan houses communicated knowledge via societies. Each of the eight nations on the coast in the Potlatch system was entirely informed of national protocols by reading things on poles, in house fronts, in chilkat blankets, and in all the forms of 'art' that was reproduced.

The art contained written identification of wealth and fiscal origins of manufactured goods. Tthis information was made available to identify the order of society, and the flow of wealth. Crests and logos adorned every piece of equipment, fishing tools, carving tools, all household items, canoes, the housefronts of the House chiefs. This part of the world developed an economy that strongly resembles the stock exchange of today through corporation development of logos and imagery identifying the money trail.

The old St. Michael's Residential School stands in Alert Bay, built in 1929. Pat was a student at the school. “The school should continue to stand,” says Wayne Alfred. “They keep Auschwitz standing as a reminder of the past.” Some of the carving for Pat's coming Potlatch is underway in the basement by carvers who work all hours of the day and night. (The rest of the haunted edifice is deserted.)
 

This Pat Alfred Memorial Potlatch in the Broughton Archipelago occurred as a reminder of enduring strength of those autonomous collectives that Pat came from. It occurred in the traditional home of the Kwakwala speaking nation. The Pat Alfred Memorial Potlatch lasted a couple of days and played host to a couple thousand people in the beautiful Alert Bay Big House. At that event the abilities of the Alfreds and their community to portray a thriving culture will no doubt stand out as a living testament to the life and times of Pat Alfred.

A good first example of implementation of APSA certification

credit Mainstream Canada

A recent announcement by the Aboriginal Aquaculture Association is receiving positive feedback on the west coast where so many communities are dependent on a marine economy that has disappeared for several years, practically a couple decades or more. The Aboriginal Principles for Sustainable Aquaculture (APSA) standard of certification has been applied to Mainstream Canada, and, according to proponents, “other aquaculture companies are now inquiring about certification. What are the criteria?

“The AAA has been working with Ahousaht for a year to bring about APSA certification of Mainstream Canada operations.” APSA grew out of a strenuous academic exercise that began about half-a-decade ago, with the goal of making industry compliant with First Nations inherent interests and values. APSA certification will show the world that, “a company produced in a way that meets the needs of First Nations with a program approved by First Nations.”

Richard Harry is the president of the AAA, “We need to make the world understand and appreciate First Nations communities operating in aquaculture. It is the biggest employer in our communities. There are jobs for people which  sustains communities, and we are  partners in these endeavors.”

As a close observer of the industry over the years, Harry notes, “Fish farming is probably the most over-regulated industry in the country. To us, it`s operation standards that matter. And where the industry goes we need to be part of it. Fiirst Nations and the companies involved will   lead the APSA program. But the market place itself is probably the most important place.”

Harry says, “Since we lack resources to promote the certification, it`s the people who accept this form of certification that will do the promotion. I don`t know if it`s ever happened that a First Nation certification of an industry has occurred.”

The AAA mission statement is to support First Nation sustainable aquaculture in ways that support and respect First Nation community culture and values. It means First Nation-approved aquaculture products coming onto the market. During the years of development, “We looked at environmental issues first, then began looking deeper at the regulatory and government programs, both mandatory and voluntary, including issues like compliance to ISO 14000, environmental permitting and assessments, government and community protocols.”

The AAA designed the criteria beginning with environmental performance of these companies and industries, “a performance that has to be better understand by public. But we also realized the need for monitoring social aspects of aquaculture, that we should focus on the economic impact in communities, and cultural aspects, asking if aquaculture operators are meeting needs in local communities.”

Ahousaht is deeply engaged in the aquaculture and fish farm industry so it makes a good starting point for a certification program, and, Harry adds, “Mainstream has been working with Ahousaht for long time to develop the relationship, in fact, signing a protocol agreementl last year. They had a natural foundation for certification.” Thus fish farming received the first certification of aquaculture under APSA, but, “The whole idea is to go across all sorts of aquaculture. 

“But this is a good first example of implementation. AAA`s goal is to have APSA applied to any form of aquaculture, operator, and First Nation across the country.” APSA audits the economic, social, water and land use, personnel use, and applies to aquaculture on the ocean, or land, including hatcheries.

“It`s like any other certification program that has a set of criteria and those criteria were developed in cooperation with AAA and First Nations. You are talking about a set of criteria established by the AAA and First Nation communities done by a third party does audit process.”

The AAA has held a couple of workshops lately to inform First Nations about APSA and the benefits they should see, with a third meeting coming to Nanaimo May 25, 2011. Contact AAA at 250-286-9939 visit www.aboriginalaquaculture.com

Potlatch-level Indigenous Artists and Artisans gather on the Pacific Coast of Canada

Potlatch Presentation: The artisans and members of Homatsa prepare to host the Pat Alfred Memorial Potlatch, April 2011, Alert Bay, BC

Carpenters also build 'capacity' in Coastal First Nation communities

John McNestry set up the Discovery Community College Mobile Training and Apprenticeship program, and the key word is mobile. These training courses are delivered everywhere from Bella Bella to Tofino to Ahousaht, and Alert Bay. Discovery Community College is taking the courses up and down the B.C. coast to meet a huge demand for skilled building trades people.

The first mobile carpentry course finished in December 2010, and, in the program, “Students are engaged for about 8 months total because we added some elements to the course, including a module on remodeling, drywall installation, and cabinetry-making.” These are additions to the basic carpentry skills and DCC goes even further. 

“We give them the basics in a year-one carpentry curriculum, foundation program, and go much further with training on roofing and siding ,so they can do housing maintenance in the communities.” As it stands, “Right now we have trained over 100 carpenters. Why is demand so high? “They’ve been  in training for carpentry because while the country is in a recession we are seeing continuous building of housing on-reserve. The demand for housing is huge, and the demand for skilled trades to build the housing is immeasurable.

Graduates are coming in numbers like twenty-three in Namgis First Nation, twenty in Ahousaht, eleven in Bella Bella  (plus 17 on second program that has recently commenced), and similar numbers for Opitsaht and Tofino. “I have a huge number of carpenters ready for the job,” says McNestry, “no less than 127 First Nations students.”

The program has an urgent need for funding, “We have to find more money now and any publicity about our success will be helpful. We want to go to the MP, Minister of Indian Affairs, and an island representative in Parliament, “It’s not just for tuition and tools. We have students that need support for rent and food for themselves and their families.”

DCC’s mobile carpentry program may be a raging success indeed, however, “We’ve run out of funds. We have the opportunity to create life-changing and life-affirming career,” and, “The thing is that out of these numbers we will see dozens of red-seal carpenters in communities where there are none today.”

None? That’s appalling, isn’t it? Anybody who has seen a First Nation Pacific Coast carving knows one thing: the people work in wood like nobody’s business. “Carpenters could be apprenticed in their own communities. We want to develop a bunch red-seal carpenters on the coast within First Nation communities.” The goal is to educate within self-sustaining communities where apprentices can find opportunities never before available on-reserve.

“A red seal tradesperson can apprentice people into the trade. We are becoming more First Nation specific to carpentry than any other college.” DCC has three mobile carpentry units. “All the training is done in community. We have double the success rate of programs that see the students coming into Campbell River to the college campus. At home in community they have their support systems, including family, local culture,” and the hope of future autonomy by institutions delivering education and training to their midst.

McNestry says, “It makes sense to deliver it local. There’s a lot of work going on. The whole idea is to make sure missing skill development starts to happen. All the letters I receive from people in Ahousaht speak to more program delivery or this sort.”
'

Europeans found  a thriving log and carving culture woven into the societies of the west coast, and wood-working culture remains integral to community life, even though, says McNestry, “They were left out of the surging growth that surrounded themselves. They have no trained people, no red seal trades living on-reserve.” 

The only way into the mainstream economy is to get the red seal certification into First Nations communities, to make apprenticeship a readily available career path. The communities will benefit immensely, “Money that currently leaves the community will stay.” McNestry says it’s a lot of money, “Of a $5 million housing project, 70 percent of the work is done in carpentry. By providing wood-working skills, it’s brings a myriad of benefits. For one thing, wood fibre is out there. Trades people could develop businesses that work in dimensional  cedar and fir.”

DCC has put $2 million put into this mobile training initiative. “The graduates are all heading into their second year apprenticeships. They are graduates of a framing technician’s program and now they need 1,000 hours of employment in the trade to achieve year two.” A red seal carpenter is a four-year apprenticeship and training program.

Carpentry careers can proceed many different ways, and at DCC in Campbell River, “We have a full woodworking and millwork shop, so, when they are ready to advance their skill sets further, we have the programs.”

Mobile training is increasing community-capacity for self-sufficiency in more ways than carpentry. Community Support Worker is another eight-month study program at DCC that is graduating qualified community personnel, and they are also training hands-on in their own community. A CSW program is underway in Namgis First Nation (Alert Bay) a few days away from commencing as spring approaches. 

McNestry says, “The CSW Program is a self-healing program,” and as it is dealing with social issues from infant to elder, including substance abuse, spousal loss, abused women,  at-risk teenagers. “Several months ago we began to realize this may be a healing program for the students. As we found the eight month program proceeding, we found they have internal challenges that the students tend to work out in their studies.”

McNestry believes this aspect to the CSW is going to gain recognition. “Programs deal with every conceivable issue in life, and when you have the history of Residential School suffering and loss of a verbal culture passed down by generations, the healing of the healers is paramount in importance.” McNestry hopes to see a clinical study of the program healing the healers. CSW in Ahousaht will be closely observed and monitored for the program’s propensity for healing the students.

Saratoga Beach on Vancouver Island

Resort on Saratoga, Vancouver Island, B.C. A resort on the beach in Canada, in winter. The Inside Passage of British Columbia.

Paul Houghton hams it up wearing the J-Leg Enabler Prosthetic Invention by Mack McColl