Industry training via Northern Manitoba Sector Council continues at pace

Doug Lauvstad, Executive Director, NMSC, joined when it started in 2007. “I came into it to work with government and industry in response to demand for skill labour in the marketplace. The program is northern-based and not exclusive to First Nations, but by the demographics of the north, it has been a big program for the Bands.” 

Lauvstad came to NMSC from University College of the North, “my previous employer,” where he was involved in the development of  training programs for 20 years in the post secondary world of education. He became active in delivering training to Aboriginal communities and Metis.” He is educated in administration of in post secondary education, born and raised in The Pas, “A city of about 7,000 people.”

The opportunities are open to all northern Manitobans, both genders, “primarily male taking the training, certainly,” and, “Typically they are people in their twenties. Those who enlist in the training enjoy a very high success rate. “The mine sector is particularly demanding a large number of employees,” but presently in Manitoba, hydro development is under way. “These are mega projects.”

Overall NMSC is engaged in employment development by training people with skills for use in an industrial setting, “So hydro is part of it.” The training demands are growing and NMSC is there to be a permanent agency. “We have three core staff members and then some contracts. We go year-round on the training. We get a base budget then we look for project funding.”

Don Nisbet, a program coordinator with the NMSC,  discussed the training model which partners industry, government and the UCN in delivering site training.  Typical programs include, Intro to Industry, Underground Miner Training, and Mineral Processing, and other.. NMSC works in  partnership with UCN and industry sector partners and northern communities  to find money, trainees, and jobs working in the various industries of mining, forestry, and electrical generation.

The upcoming mining academy opening in Flin Flon will offer classes later in 2011. “Premier Selinger paid a visit  to facilities under construction,” while travelling in the area in mid August. “The academy is still in construction and we have no official completion date but NMSC continues running programs,” and sees the opening of the Academy as a real enhancement to our efforts to develop a skilled northern workforce.

The Flin Flon-based academy is for training in the mining industry, “Training is mine-related at the academy, basically hard-rock mining, Training is relevant to the job opportunities found in Northern Manitoba.” The NMSC is an initiative that is trying to take advantage of the demographics, “ If the academy wasn't built we would still be training, however, this new facility will allow us to dramatically expand the range of programs offered, improve the quality of the programs currently delivered and lay the groundwork to become a nationally utilized training educational centre, says Nisbet.

Bucko Lake Mine, operated by CaNickel Minerals, has hosted several NMSC training sessions in the past few years that produced some 57 graduates and the plan is for more training to start early in the new year.  “Fifty one percent of the graduates are still working at the mine site."

Meanwhile the NMSC, which has been operating over four years, has also  worked with Workplace Education Manitoba in bringing basic essential skills to their industry focused training.  A product of this collaboration was the development of a custom entry level program entitled Introduction To Industry.

NMSC is working to “increase the pool of skilled labour from which we can draw, improving basic skills like math, and communications skills, then following up with more detailed training initiatives. We do not do it alone. We work with the resources we can find, often using agencies like Workplace Education Manitoba, industry partners, MKO, MMF, Training and Education Manitoba and UCN.

NMSC is mandated to continue in terms of the training and preparing a potential workforce for northern industry. The council’s member companies represent the largest resource based operations in Northern Manitoba and as such bring hundreds of potential jobs and career opportunities to people of the north.  For the most part the training is free for the selected candidates and they need only bring a commitment in time and energy.

Some of the training requires living in mining camps and involves relocation. Most candidates to date have received some form of training allowance either through their band, EI, or the MMF. NMSC training initiatives remain diverse in area and specialization, basically focusing of the specific  skills needed for the resource industries in northern Manitoba, be they related to forestry, mining or energy.

Falling and slashing is the game for Edziza

Clayton Burger is a Northwest Pacific born and raised tree faller from Iskut, B.C., taking his skills with a chain saw all over the province, all types of forest and species of trees. After 20 years in the business as a faller, he went to work as a foreman for logging outfit, which proved to be excellent preparation to, “start my own. This is our second year operating out of Terrace, B.C..

Moving from Iskut (Tahltan territory) came after doing the coastal falling jobs, “I spent ten years in camps, had two seasons of heli-logging. I have ten 10 fallers working for me now, anywhere between eight and 15, through the year, and it will grow a lot more. We are working even as far as Columbia Valley, on the transmission line job there.”

Edziza is working in Edson, Alberta, and Dawson Creek, B.C. and, “right where we are with the Northern Transmission Line project.” Any falling or slashing is the game, “Line cutting, right-of-way, seismic,  oilfield line, pipeline,” routes cut to make trails for industry, or government contracts.

Edziza is working on the Northwest Transmission Line survey of the centre line for the 300-plus kilometre transmission line project that proceeds from Terrace in Kitsumkalum through the Nass Valley and Nisga’a Nation, proceeding across Gitxsan into Tahltan territory.

“Weather’s been horrible,” miserable, raining or cold, but the crew of 12 continues to plug away through the wet conditions, “We started September 2010, and we are working on the project from point-to-point. I have a 12-man crew working on the centre line.” Most of the employees have been trained in chainsaw faller competency at his own company’s expense, by a company called Enform, and these men form the core of a company that is expanding operations to other principalities, including Alberta, and the north.

The NTL project involves doing the survey, and at the same time, cutting a walking trail the entire distance so engineers and construction teams or environmental monitoring personnel can access the route. “We are working with All-North Contracting on the survey job at NTL. I am also working on a program now in Nisga’a to run a training course for two weeks looking for chain-saw-experienced people with no tickets. We will get them out and prepare them to test, then they can pass the tests,” to be certified fallers in the region.

He says, “Business is good and getting better. We go year-round. We worked last winter in Alberta in the beetle control fall and burn program from January to March. and seismic lines. I expect that’ll keep us going again this winter.” The personnel is usually First Nation, “Most of my guys are from Hazelton, Nass Valley, Iskut, Kitimat, and Tsimshian, even Prince George. I just hired four more from Lytton and Kelowna area, since we are getting work down south on the Columbia Power project.

AFOA has chapters across the country

Aboriginal Financial Officers Association of BC held the Annual Conference on Band Administration, June 28-29, 2011, a two-day event in it’s fourth year. That year it was held at the Coast Bastion in Nanaimo, B.C.. Mikes Meares is the General Manager of AFOA-BC, “People are not entirely aware that we helped develop the national organization.”

AFOA has chapters across the country, says Meares, however, “INAC support for the organization is lacking in some provinces. Manitoba and Ontario have no staff on board due to the lack of funding, and it’s difficult to run these kinds of training programs with strictly volunteers, even though that’s how we started out. We soon discovered you need a paid staff dedicated for it to keep moving forward toward the task of delivering financial training to Band administrators.”
    

The annual conference draws 60 to 80 people, and it is one of a series of conferences that the organization provides to Band administrators in workshop and specialized financial and legal  training sessions year-round. Says Meares, “We run three conferences per year, and offer six different types of community-based workshops. We have three staff in a model of program delivery that works to build capacity in our communities. We are able to say, facilitators welcome.”

He says networking is huge, “one of the biggest benefits from the conference, and building the facilitator network is constant within the organization. We are always looking for those who want to step up and deliver financial and legal skills training to First Nations. It’s a natural for those who hold accounting designations, financial management expertise, and legal backgrounds.” Faciliators receive a  small honorarium.
 

It’s essential training and Band administrators, “need people with expertise to talk to, so we are providing training to people for themselves to make improvements to the financial management of Band administrations all over the province.” Meares explains the AFOA-BC’s methods provide tremendous cost savings in the delivery of skills via 20-person workshops.
 

“The sessions are held by experts, (including law experts) and the facilitator is not costing us a fortune, so there is a huge cost-efficiency in our method, and the expertise goes all the way up to law and finance. We workshop on human resource (HR) issues as well, and we presently have one facilitator with a strong background on Human Resources issues.”
 

There are essentials in running an office, “and HR is a big issue in First Nations  Solid policies and procedures are essential to any organization. We are not in the business of fixing situations. Our goal is to put people into designations, and in terms of building capacity, nothing is more important than HR. We are equipping people in the organization to have the capacity to manage things in Band finance.”
    

Meares said AFOA-BC member administrators deal with Canadian accounting rules that change at pace, “and our staff and other financial auditors know the rules must be followed,” which explains the demand for continuous delivery of courses. Economic development doors are opening wide internationally as well, and First Nations will be required to follow international accounting standards in conducting new trade with countries in Asia and Europe. 
 

Meares notes that the national AFOA offices are instituting a public administrator program with a designation in band administration, curriculum now in development. “The CAPA program will  be rolled out in 2011 in the Fall.” See www.afoabc.org for more about AFOA-BC, started in 1996.

Cost efficiencies of geothermal meeting widespread approval

Look at housing and infrastructure and you should be looking at geothermal, says Inez Miller of Manitoba Geothermal Energy Alliance (MGEA). “It doesn’t matter where you look in the province, the business arrangements work.” Miller says, “Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs is expressing interest in geothermal from an overall planning perspective. They tell us it has a strong appeal based on funding, access to resources, and other issues that could make projects successful.”

MGEA wants to be positioned to address areas of concern expressed by AMC in workshops. She notes that Darcy Wood, AMC housing and infrastructure manager, made a presentation to MGEA this spring that contained a lot of statistical analysis about housing needs assessments. “It was an excellent presentation. Geothermal presents phenomenal opportunities and we learned about the issues around potable water that could be tied to geothermal systems.”

Brian Soulier works at AMC on geothermal issues, “What we did last March was host a workshop in a technology working group that focused on the economic development with people in finance, human resources, environment, and infrastructure or housing planning. Our workshops brought together First Nations to communicate about advancements in technology.”

One topic of discussion was geothermal, and Miller spoke about MGEA as did Ed Lohrenz, Vice President of MGEA, Ron Robins, MGEA president, “and Cross Lakes First Nation presented on their success story with a 38-unit housing installation in a district loop. Franklin Ross came with their contractor to discuss installation and the obstacles that were overcome.”

Soulier said, “Knowledge exchange with First Nations communities helps those who are interested and assists others who perceive it cautiously, stating that geothermal is too complicated or too costly. The expense depends on the priority of the community, those seeking good infrastructure solutions with long run cost efficiencies will find the economic capacity. We are advocating geothermal for the communities in Manitoba.”

Winnipeg Geothermal’s Ron Robins is serving president of MGEA. Board members are competitors and Robins is owner of a geothermal  installer company doing design and installation, conducting geological drilling assessments for heat exchange arrays for either commercial buildings or apartment blocks.

Friesen Drillers is owned by John Friesen, operating a third generation family business drilling in Manitoba since the late 1800s. Frieson is a board member MGEU, “We work all over Canada,” from an operational centre in Steinbach, Manitoba. “Drilling in the Canadian Shield is more expensive, even so, you get thermal conductivity in the shield that is higher than average, so it’s a positive geothermal situation that is more expensive to access with the same payback on BTUs, although the cost to drill goes up.”

Geothermal drilling occurs in rock, clay, limestone, any conditions. One of the important geothermal options is called an open loop, which extracts heat from a dedicated water well and returns the water to another well. “If you are in rural Manitoba and need a water well, you can use that same well to extract geothermal energy and drill an extra well to act as a return well. We do a fair bit of that. By nature our first love was drilling for water.”

Friesen says, “Geothermal provides huge cost efficiencies over the long term. In the urban environment, commercial geothermal installations provide huge energy savings in apartment blocks. Commercial arrays work for major manufacturing companies like Bristol Aerospace, which uses high heat processes in manufacturing and they take ground water out for cooling. Acquiring water rights for allows for licensing groundwater systems, a scenario for which we engineer and design systems, be they closed or open loop systems.”

Drills come from various drill manufacturers, and Friesen has a large number of different drills for the variety of jobs the company engages. “My company is now in it since 1892. I’ve been in geothermal since 1972 on the residential side and the commercial side since 1976. In the past five years residential geothermal has exploded into a major part of the business, and it keeps growing as more customers are able to justify the $18,000 to $25,000 upfront costs.”

Sealing the drilled loops is done meticulously with thermal-enhanced grout, which contain very low conductivity values, “We do bore holes up to 600 ft. in Winnipeg and around Manitoba, and the concern is always to preserve ecological integrity of aquifers, separate water tables, and to avoid contamination of fresh water by salt water aquifers.”

He notes, “We have to protect these water tables. Geothermal drillers are going through ground water and grouting creates the security, which takes time and money.” The company does extensive training of drillers, pump installers, and all facets of operations, with a staff of 65, including a hydrologist engineer, “a rare breed. There is lots of competition in the industry. We do a lot of training and skills development in drilling and various technologies.”

Lee Robins of CleanEnergy says, “We provide complete geo-exchange installation on large commercial projects.   The company distributes GeoStar Heat Pumps, which  are available with ten year parts and  labour allowance factory warranties, and a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years,

“Geothermal takes heat out of the ground in winter and releases it into the (building)., During summer it takes the heat from the building and releases to the ground. The dual purpose makes it more efficient - then there’s the type of loop weather it be it an open system, drilled, buried loops, or lake or ocean loops. We have in-house engineers that can provide complete design, energy analysis and life cycle analysis.  They work extensively in commercial projects, estimating proper heat and cooling loads estimating proper heat and cooling loads that contribute to an efficient environmentally friendly system.

Robins says, “The heat gathering loops are designed to serve the equipment, and loops are designed according to geography, as well as financial feasibility. Around the country recreation facilities are using geothermal  adaptations to rinks and halls or swimming pools to exchange heat, moving heat energy from one place for use in another. District loops are very good options wider community-use. I’ve been in geothermal since 1988 and I used to be surprised how long it was taking to get it started. Now the cost of everything related to energy is growing, and the green initiatives are part of the new equations.. Big innovations in efficiencies and quality of materials have made the geothermal investment better than ever.”

Crystal Thibeault is an executive on the board of MGEA and owns International Pipe Manufacture in Selkirk, Manitoba, which markets specialized pipe across Canada to both coasts, from Truro to Bella Coola, and places between like Berens River, Manitoba. Water pipe, electrical pipe, and geothermal pipe. “We put your pipe in the ground and manufacture up six inch pipe, and geothermal uses a technically proficient plastic pipe called high density polyethylene (HDPE)

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