Winton Global houses built by following the numbers and shooting the nails

Building much-needed new homes in remote locations is a challenge for many First Nation communities.  So much so that many are now pursuing the idea of using factory-built, precision-fit wood framing components to quickly erect more and better quality homes. 

     

Winton Global Homes, based in Prince George, BC, operates one of the most technologically advanced roof truss and wall-panel manufacturing facilities in Western North America.  Delivering factory-framed housing components to First Nation communities in order to help alleviate the crisis in housing has become a key focus of the company.

     

Marlene Fehr-Power, General Manager of Winton Global Homes in Prince George alludes to shifting preferences she has noticed when it comes to First Nation housing, "Over time, it is becoming more and more popular for forward-thinking First Nation communities to build multi-family dwellings as a part of their community plans."  

     

And the demand for housing is changing, says Marlene.  "First Nations have a growing number of elders in their communities and these folks often require a form of housing known as 'Visitable Housing'."  In simple terms, a Visitable Home is a home with a zero-step front entry and a bathroom on the main floor which incorporates a 3 ft. door.  "Visitable homes enhance inclusion and participation in community life," says Marlene, not to mention the advantages of easier long term care.

     

Winton Global Homes also produces floor systems, pre-built wall panel and engineered trusses for major urban projects as well.  "We have just finished building floors, walls and trusses for the Friendship House in Prince George, B.C., the new Prince George Native Friendship Centre Transition House that stands on the outer fringe of the city's downtown core. 

     

This major new facility provides a warm and safe home for many disabled and displaced people in the northern B.C. city, but the company also delivers home packages far afield as well.  "Our homes are shipped as far as Manitoba, and to the Pacific North West of the US." 

     

Marlene says, "The truth about factory-framed or panelized or packaged homes is that they shine as housing solutions in remote areas."  Many of the 700 Indian Reservations in Canada are remote and housing construction can cause difficulties when the planning isn't perfect.  But now, Winton Global Homes can deliver a new home package directly to site that requires nothing but assembly.  "It's all about controlling your costs.  With easy to assemble pre-built wall panel and engineered trusses all packaged up and delivered with windows, doors, siding and roofing, you can keep a tight reign on 'construction cost over runs' which are so common with other methods of building these days.  For people working within a budget this is the ideal solution."

     

This kind of cost control and efficiency applies to single family dwellings, multi-family projects and two-storey buildings as well.  

"We help communities build the homes they so desperately need, from design through materials selection through to complete assembly instructions and project coordination," she says.  "Our homes are basically assembled by number, and erected to 'lock-up' so finishing can occur on the inside."  

Once the basic outside portion of the home is built the inside work proceeds. The choice and design of a community's factory-framed, panelized homes for remote communities can be done via telephone and with the use of e-mail.  The factory in PG designs, builds and ships floor systems, numbered wall panels and engineered trusses directly to site for assembly.

     

"Follow the numbers and shoot the nails," says Marlene. "The personnel required to build the home only need a qualified carpenter on-site to help guide the process.  And, it goes very smoothly."  Remember, the procedure from lock-up is to install the electrical, plumbing, and heating systems that finish the new home in preparation for move-in day.  "The panel-built home is quickly erected and trades do the rest." 

     

As First Nations Drum reported previously this year, "We love a challenge in the design phase because our goal is to give the customer exactly what they want," says Marlene.  Winton Global Homes has been constructing panel-built housing for the past 30 years, previously doing business as Spruce Capital Homes.  Feel free to view a comprehensive selection of affordable new home designs at their Website by visiting www.wintonglobal.com .

Solar energy in Canada lags behind other industrial nations

First Power Canada is the brainchild of Joe Thwaites and his team from Taylor Munro Energy Systems that  brought to bear the training and skills development in the T-Sou-ke Nation Solar Demonstration Project on the south-west corner of Vancouver Island. The T'Sou-ke Nation installed an $800,000 array of solar energy in the Vancouver Island community to create passive solar electricity and solar thermal heat, light and power. "In summer," says Donna Morton, "the solar panels feed energy back into the BC HYDRO grid," making a valuable contribution to the First Nation community's economy.
    

Morton is founder and Executive Director of the Centre for Integral Economics (CIE), in Victoria, B.C.. First Power Canada is a partnership with Taylor Munro Energy Systems, Morton says, "First Power Canada is a project to creates funding, finance, training, and other community supports to First Nation communities wanting to gain energy autonomy. " The T'Sou-ke project is a prime example of the prowess for capacity building that First Power Canada intends to employ in a number of situations.
    

This kind of energy development is going to go much further in Canadian First Nations because the communities with resource bases and energy demands look to green energy solutions, and industry is making close liaisons to move projects like T'Sou-ke into the making. "Our organization," says Morton, "is geared to work with First Nation communities, Aboriginal organizations, and other groups that face significant barriers to working in the trades." The target audience includes immigrants and those who come from a background of poverty regardless of their origins. We work with people who have special gifts that may fall outside the world of book learning experience. We find the funding to do the training with partnerships in various organizations, adding value to the training and finding people in the margins of society."
    

Morton says, "We train anywhere and piggyback on existing training facilities; we train by doing. It's tactical training with a lot of hands-on building, testing, and learning to fix and maintain equipment in the real world. It's a crash course with apprenticeship qualities, but we employ variables by meeting and customizing the needs of communities. We take people where they are and use whatever skills they possess, in roofing, mechanicals, plumbing, carpentry, or electrical. Any one of these skills is a good entry and our training really works well on people who are jack-of-all-trades."
    

Morton notes that installing solar electrical and heating systems is an integrated trade. "Our training puts all those pieces together. Loggers and wood workers, unemployed mill-workers, these people have huge assets that are not being employed and no programs appear to exist for these people. There are not enough trained people in solar installation to meet the present demand and we hope to incubate the capacity for starting businesses, doing this for all kinds of reserves and bringing business to life in communities. Metis organizations and non-Status First Nation people and immigrant workers who come from a mix of ethnicities, our purpose is to cross the racial barriers."
    

Morton says North American use of solar energy is way behind developments in Europe. "They are 25 years ahead of us and have created a hundred thousand jobs. Solar installation is proceeding in Canada but 10,000 installers are needed, and solar infrastructure need these builder. First Nations can enter the industry in a way that favours the way they respect the earth, and solar harnesses the earth's resources by not taking more than is required. It is a form of natural power." 
    

 First Power Canada designed their education initiatives from a series of pilot projects including the T-Sou-ke project (reported in August 2009 First Nations Drum Dialogue on Development), "From this point we would like to install another 100 more systems this year. From the beginning we foresaw building whole systems that would reduce dependencies on burning diesel and coal to create electricity. We will solve energy problems organically and we will promote training and installation together. We will produce solutions in project financing and business development, building the capacity to own their futures, undoing dependency. It's job creation living up to the traditions of the ancestors. It will assist communities in getting past the perception of dependency and connect them to the world."

Lateral Violence in Indigenous Life in Canada

 

David Segerts is a man who lives for positive change in Canadian society. Sitting one day with Segerts in his tastefully decorated apartment I felt surrounded by an orderly nature given to his lifestyle and was treated to his impeccable manners. I was also given a taste of his lifetime of memories before he talked about the really important issues he works on.

Segerts was born in 1960,  at the time Uranium City, Saskatchewan, was a city of 5,000 souls, and he grew up to see the mining property turn into a ghost town. Uranium City was shutdown in 1982 but by that time he was ready to move on.

"I am a Dene/Cree but I generally say I am Dene because I look almost exactly like my Dene father." He shows a photograph that proves he is the spitting image of his dad. "I dropped out of school when I was in grade 8 and went back for adult upgrading by the age of 25 at Alberta Vocational Centre in Calgary. AVC was a good learning experience although the facility lacked a First Nation student organization so I helped put one together. We held dances, fundraisers, and hosted a room that the school donated, which became a gathering place for all nations and a useful foot in the door for First Nation students."

A short time later Segerts began to study something very important in First Nation life in Canada, the tactics of oppression known as lateral violence that are especially prevalent in systemic racism. It is this lateral violence that explains the extraordinary incarceration rates and recidivism in crime for the First Nation people of Canada. As high as 50 percent of the prisoners in Canada either male or female are First Nation or Aboriginal people. For these kinds of disparities to exist in a segment of society that is less than 5 percent of the total population, the problems have to run very deep indeed.

"Lateral violence goes on in every First Nation organization and starts with arguments like, 'My family is better than theirs,'" he says. "It is important within the system of racism to get us fighting amongst each other. We are actually born into it, however, because the system is designed that way. Public awareness is the only way to address it," says Segerts.

"The methods of lateral violence include, backstabbing, gossip, infighting, shaming, humiliating, damaging comments, belittling, and sometimes violent behaviour." Other terms for what is happening to First Nations in Canada include auto-genocide and horizontal violence, he said. These terms are applied mostly to the members of oppressed groups in society, and he explained, "I didn't really understand lateral violence until I was about 30 years of age. I rarely discussed it until I did the research first. Lateral violence is designed to prevent efforts to heal the effects of oppression."

Lateral violence teaches people to disrespect and deny the rights of an oppressed group, to destroy values and beliefs. Practitioners will engage in infighting, faulting finding, and scapegoating, raising the stakes of competition via jealousy and envy. The attacks are made upon those who already possess low self esteem and further attacks lower a person's self worth.

Ultimately the goal is to make the victim take blame for the continuous putdowns, "This is the nature of oppression," says Segerts. "It is a denial of their self and humanity. They think they have become objects unworthy of respect. They fail from the inability to recognize themselves as human beings. They become convinced that the oppressor owns them, and often the oppressor does own them through financial dependencies upon welfare and personal dependencies upon drugs or alcohol."

He says, “When my son was 11 years old I brought him to Calgary to live with me, and after a few short weeks he told me, ‘Dad, I didn’t realize that Indians didn’t drink. I didn’t realize the Indian men work.’” It was another stunning learning experience about lateral violence for Segerts the father who has never spent time stuck in welfare programs but knows on reserves and in some urban communities it can become a long-running generational trap.

“People who feel dependent suffer a lack of personal power. When they lose power they will see their cultural identity eliminated and be unable to stop it,” he says. Many times the First Nations in Canada have been known to hide their own beliefs or adopt the beliefs of an oppressing society. “They were dislocated from the land and suffered breakdown of family structure during the Residential School years. Indigenous people were removed from families at age four in some cases, only to be afflicted with physical, mental, sexual, and social abuses.”

His own mother had a safety pin jammed through her tongue by nuns at one such school, then was made to sit facing a corner in a classroom for speaking her Cree language. “There were many children killed by torture,” he asserts, “and other families were disrupted by one child being raised in a Catholic school and another being raised in a United Church run school. In fact the Residential School system was a highly specialized form of lateral violence.”

The lateral violence design for First Nations people results in a distrust of First Nation leaders by their own people. “It results in a distrust of those who might emerge to help," he says. "Rising stars are severely restricted or punished. Leaders who make any difference are fired and persecuted. Incompetent leaders are recruited and promoted by the oppressors. Dividing and conquering is the main process used by the oppressors.”

Segerts needs to write a book with a biographical story line if he hasn't already. He was trained as a technical engineer at BCIT and NAIT, then, while living in Vancouver, he entered the film industry, first as an actor, then as a producer and director. When we last spoke he was running a youth-at-risk employment initiative that operates across Canada for First Nations. Remember the name David Segerts because the book would be an important read. If you know David Segerts personally, put the suggestion to him again. 

David Garrick's study of CMTs on the west coast of Canada, Broughton Archipelago

A Firewood CMT

In the days prior to the Industrial Revolution First Nations built canoes to travel the extensive waterways of the Pacific coast. Each dugout canoe was manufactured out of a single cedar tree and these dugout war canoes were designed for ocean voyages of long duration.

Sometimes during these journeys canoeists ran afoul of the weather. The water on the Inside Passage is a reasonably constant 6 or 7 degrees Celsius but the weather varies and rainfall is a potential threat all year long, especially from October to March. Dealing with these wet conditions called for planning, which included the invention of the 'firewood CMT,' a form of culturally modified tree (CMT) found on remote islands and inlets of the Pacific Coast of Canada.

"Knowledge of the history of forest use is crucial for understanding the development of forests, which in turn helps to understand how societies react to forest development," said Rikard Andersson, Faculty of Forest Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. "Culturally modified trees (CMTs), recorded in the western U.S. (and Canada), northern Scandinavia, and south-eastern Australia, are features that can be dated precisely, and they bear witness to unique events of human activity."

David Garrick is a Canadian anthropologist with specific expertise in CMTs in west coast rainforests. "These artefacts define the First Nations communities in a practical way. They had camps all over the place, often at the mouth of a river. If they were taking a three-day voyage by canoe and it started raining they would pull out of the water, but how would you start a fire?"

An essential CMT would be found ashore where they could and often did make land and find the firewood CMT, each site containing a dry source of wood. The travelers would find a small cavern dug above the roots inside a massive cedar tree trunk. "They would peel shreds of the dry cedar found inside the hollowed trunk and they would ignite a fire inside the tree."

These firewood CMTs were commonplace, "There's one found at every encampment." Garrick has studied these peculiar modifications from Banks Island all the way to Kitkatla. He and others have found abundant evidence of a kindling source that provided instant fire to travelers. For the past three decades David Garrick concentrated on the study of humans interacting in forests on the Pacific Coast.

He found a perfect place to do CMT research on Hanson Island, about 15 km south west of Alert Bay, B.C.. He set up the Earth Embassy in the heights of the 4 sq. km. island and he worked under the auspices of the Yukusem Heritage Society (composed of four First Nations from the Broughton Archipelago and Johnstone Strait).

"If you keep the ecosystem intact it becomes a living laboratory and a living museum, and a living classroom." For further study, "We have a post-secondary learning opportunities in the area. We have trails into all kinds of nooks and crannies on Hanson Island."

Garrick's laboratory on Hanson Island has been a welcome presence in the First Nations of coastal B.C. because his research provides a good history lesson about cedar usage in the culture and economy of the people. For instance a 'core-popped' cedar tree looks like a traumatic injury to those who pass by, but core-popping was no problem to First Nations, instead, it was a marker of time, "What happened to the cedar tree core was caused by a memorable event like a potlatch."

First Nation forest use went into a state of chaos for a period after contact with Europeans and the anthropology is specific about describing the trauma, "After epidemics reduced the population of Indigenous people, you see the sickness of the people reflected in the cedar peelings. Suddenly there are one-tenth the number of people available to peel cedar tree bark or cultivate and harvest other plants in the cedar groves."

Garrick's work will continue on Hanson Island where he has equipped others to teach everyone from small groups of First Nation students to the First Nation CMT researchers who identify the evidence of occupation and prior use in traditional territories. He maintained beautiful gardens at the Earth Embassy and he had members of the multi-nation Society trained to cut and maintains trails to the instructive cedar groves that will stand in perpetuity on Hanson Island.


Freelance Writing by Mack McColl in 2009

Naikun in Haida Gwaii is about green energy for the provincial grid

Haida Enterprise Corporation (“HaiCo”) made the announcement on Aug 13, 2009, on behalf of the Haida Nation, that an agreement was done with NaiKun Wind Energy Group Inc. (TSX-V: NKW) to acquire up to 40 per cent of the wind energy project being developed through NaiKun Wind subsidiary NaiKun Wind Generating Inc. in the giant Hecate Strait of the North Pacific Coast. 

HaiCo spokespersons said the Haida Nation and NaiKun Wind Energy Group (“NaiKun Wind”) have signed a memorandum of understanding in support of the agreement. 
     

HaiCo and the Haida Nation will be seeking the support of the federal government for the proposal and they have said the initiative is consistent with the objectives of the new Federal Framework on Aboriginal Economic Development. The current estimated cost of the NaiKun Wind project is approximately $2 billion and the Haida are positioned to acquire that 40 per cent of the 396 MW wind energy project, and add a host of energy associated benefits. 

It involves over 100 tower mounted turbines arrayed over hundreds of square kilometres, as proposed for the Hecate Strait. "We are still working on the environmental review and it will be ready, depending on the weather, either in September or October 2009," says Thomas Olsen, MBA, and CEO of HaiCo.
     

"Future income from part ownership of the wind energy project could provide the catalyst to enable the Haida Nation to create a sustainable economy for Haida Gwaii." The Nation is poised to develop the giant islands in their reaches in such economic development areas such as forestry products, fisheries of several species fin and shell, and aquaculture, not too mention that opportunities in tourism and recreation. The new power from ownership in NaiKun adds immensely as well as to community infrastructure.
    

Olsen says the Haida Enterprise Corporation and the Haida Nation will be seeking the support of the federal government for this proposal and that includes a range of offices including INAC, Environment Canada, and DFO. "It will change life and give a wide stream of benefits to people in Haida Gwaii," he says. "The current energy situation is very limiting to the economic development aspirations of the Haida Nation. Diesel generated power is too restrictive of the development process."
     

HaiCO is meanwhile following the processes and meeting with certain politicians like Hon. Chuck Stahl, Minister of Indian Affairs, "We are working with a bureaucracy to see how we fit," Thomas says, "and this is an Aboriginal economic development initiative so we are trying to emphasize the wide array of benefits to the Haida equity position in NaiKun Wind Energy Group. It's a concern to the whole population of these islands," he says, "that they gain ownership and access of a green energy solution," but the cost of the huge array of wind turbines is daunting, "and people don't necessarily understand the debt."
      

Olsen says the federal and provincial governments have to understand that the wind energy project is about more than green energy for the province, "It's about self-reliance for the Haida and self-determination. We have a big fishery and scallop aquaculture underway, and we have tourism opportunities with existing operators. We have a substantial forestry license, 120,000 CM per year. We are concerned about creating new capacity for jobs that will continue to provide downstream benefits within the local economy, and that comes from an equity position in power generation from a large producer like NaiKun." 

HaiCo Environmental Review 2011 / Haida withdraw from Naikun investment opportunity Dec 2011

Video of photo collage, Hanson Island, Yukusem Canoe Carving Project by Beau Dick

Cloudworks and Douglas First Nation in hydro developments

Nick Andrews of Cloudworks Energy Inc. was sanguine about progress on run-of-river projects underway in 2009 in the In-SHUCK-ch Nation's Douglas First Nation, “A couple of run-of-river hydro sites are going along well, three are in the works and there are more to come.”
     

Andrews is able to discuss a six-year working relationship with the Douglas Band, located about 50 km northwest of Harrison Hot Springs in southwestern British Columbia. “A Participation Agreement is in place for the proposed suite of six run-of-river projects (Douglas, Fire, Stokke, Tipella, and Lamont Creeks, and Upper Stave River) located within the Douglas traditional territories.” 
     

The Independent Power Producers of BC have been struggling to get their message out. “We are not effectively stating the case for this kind of development,” says Andrews. “The more misinformation, more confusion, more is the need to put in place the broad consensus that exists for run-of-river power generation.”
     
He says, “First Nations are the strong suit in the business mix, and their presence is working to correct social conditions because these projects directly affect these people. We are doing great just by making our own partners happy. We are not splashing across the world,” but the First Nations involved are in it from the outset. 
     “They are involved in all levels of study, environmental, engineering and site development, and they are finding skilled employment and the First Nations have ownership of the energy resources. There is capacity building underway and ancillary businesses are finding jobs and contracts,” with their new capacity.
     

Chief Don Harris is the Douglas First Nation chief, “We are active at four sites right now although the Harrison site is winding down,” as the first phases of the development near completion. “Our camp at Stave Lake is running at full capacity with 160 people working. We are in the wind-up stages on part of it, with a couple of adjustments to be made.”
     

Harris says the Douglas communities obtained a lot of jobs in machine operation and construction, “And Kiewit will be picking up a some of these guys on their other developments,” and in fact, “they will be able to make a career out of Kiewit.”
     

Douglas First Nation communities will gain new life above and beyond employment because now these communities can grow, weaned from diesel power that fails often and fails to provide the capacity for new housing development.”We're shareholders and we do maintenance on the system when it gets up and running. One of the things we key on is environmental issues and cultural issues.”
     

Harris recently attended an inter-tribal fisheries meeting in Vernon, BC and says, “We discussed the standards for power projects,” in relation to the salmon fishery, “and wildlife issues. We are setting standards for developers to deal with the issues and First Nation participation.” Douglas First Nation has been working diligently toward December 31, 2010, “when the power grid we are building joins the BC Hydro grid.”

Commercial Law absent in First Nations life in Canada

Economic development is a promising direction for First Nations in Canada, especially since the process has come under close scrutiny from coast to coast. University of Toronto Law School hosted a unique forum on First Nation economic development in 2008. “I think the most important thing is that everyone recognizes First Nation economic development is a political matter,” said the event moderator.

Holding an economic development conference at a law school should come as no surprise. Commercial law in Canadian life is huge, and until now, seemed strangely inconsequential to First Nations. Professor Doug Sanderson and other law faculty attended an intriguing luncheon address on day two of the conference highlighted by a speech delivered by Hon. Michael Bryant, Aboriginal Affairs minister, who suggested the need to create commercial law courts for First Nation reserves.

“How much of law in Canada is commercial law?” we asked. “Oh, about 60 percent or more,” Professor Sanderson replied. It is this type of law that sews up jurisdictional economics, and it is this law that is unavailable to aboriginal people. Aboriginal people are born under a completely different set of rules. Does not a single realization come to light that the Indian Act excludes a race of people from the economy by depriving access to commercial law? First Nation economic development is, in reality, written out of the realm of mainstream economics. A system of trusteeship holds all wealth, and monitored activity on an Indian Reserve has to be decided by a Minister of Indian Affairs. 122 sections of the Indian Act to make this potentate’s role very clear in the lives of aboriginal people. They are not allowed to have money.

Aboriginal economic development became a legal academic exercise with a national focus because the minster of Aboriginal Affairs in Ontario was arresting and jailing elders from Kitchenaumaykoosib Innunwig who protested Platinex Mines. Perhaps, it was out of frustration that the minister spoke to the matter as one of commercial rather than criminal concern. He called for a system to be put in place to accommodate the legal concerns of the First Na tions.

This is a fact of law, that a political document (the Indian Act) apparently deprives First Nations of a legal framework to possess money. The session’s moderator said solutions to these substantial concerns of legality are currently being sought. He believes people are only beginning to meet to address economic matters at the political level. Sanderson added that the situation is made even worse because a “settler versus native” attitude prevails and political issues remain unresolved. He noted the situation at Caledonia (and could have included the mind-boggling threat to personal security undergoing Mohawk people when they go to the store).

Sanderson said, “There are many ways for First Nations and corporate Canada to act together. . .The current political reality demands that thought and speech gravitate around ways to do economic development.” Sanderson also suggested that the best example for a way forward was cited in Minister Bryant’s speech when Bryant raised the subject of the Chocktaw Tribal Council (CTC) in the USA. The CTC has a federally-constituted commercial law court that governs activities under their jurisdiction along the Mississippi. They have American Indian judges and Chocktaw commercial law.

Culture Camp on Yukusem

 

Housing inspection services coming to First Nations communities

A national non-profit organization is fighting in the trenches of First Nation housing. First Nations National Building Officers Association (FNNBOA) is a volunteer organization that represents a profession offering technical services in residential construction and renovation on-reserve.
     

FNNBOA members are qualified to deal with house plan reviews, inspections, recommendation of repairs, and they provide technical advocacy and advisory services for on-reserve housing.

     

Chief Keith Maracle, Tyendinaga, Ontario, is secretary of the volunteer board, “There are approximately 250 to 300 employed in this sector,” a small number in relation to the number of First Nation Indian Act-governed communities in Canada, no less than 700 inhabited Indian Reservations.
     

FNNBOA faces a peculiar challenge to expand the role of its officers in First Nation housing, “We are seen as regulatory,” said Chief Maracle, and regulations are apparently not something to be desired in the fractious world of First Nation housing.
     

FNNBOA members are qualified to inspect housing construction, “We have occupational standards, a code of ethics, and certification procedures to inspect houses on reserve.” Chief Maracle says FNNBOA members are qualified to support CMHC and mortgage approvals, INAC leasehold guarantee programs, and reports to Environment Canada.
    

 Richard ‘Bud’ Jobin is co-President of FNNBOA who hails from central Alberta. Since 2002 when they laid the organizational groundwork, these two men have been advocates of professional First Nation housing services, “Certified inspection of First Nation housing is becoming a compliance issue,” says Bud, “which impacts on mortgage and insurance.”
     

It may not be here but the age of reason is coming over First Nation housing policy and FNNBOA intends to have First Nation housing inspection services in the ready. They have training affiliations with George Brown University, Humber College, NAIT, and Vancouver Island University to produce qualified First Nation Housing inspectors.
     

Bank creating viable housing market
     

Royal Bank of Canada illustrates the growing importance of certified inspection services in First Nation housing. RBC introduced a program this spring to help First Nations capitalize on economic growth opportunities.
     

RBC announced a new mortgage program called the Leasehold Mortgage Program to, “provide First Nations members with greater flexibility and choice when it comes to financing the purchase or construction of a home.” It also helps create marketable housing in reserve communities.
     

“RBC has worked with First Nations leaders/governments for many years to find and provide options for financing a home in the same manner that is offered off a reserve,” said David Cutway, manager, Residential Mortgages Policy, RBC.
     

“This new CMHC default-insured program . . . allows qualified borrowers on qualified reserve lands to obtain a home mortgage, benefitting both the purchaser and the First Nation community.”
     

Financing of on-reserve housing has been limited in the past, said Mr. Cutway. “For example, First Nations members had to obtain a band or Ministerial Loan Guarantee (MLG) to secure a loan to purchase a home on reserve land. In addition, the First Nation government was responsible for the construction, maintenance and repair of these homes.”
     

The Leasehold Mortgage Program can help First Nations improve economic development through the construction of new homes, renovations to existing homes, purchases of new or existing homes, and construction of duplexes to four-plexes.
    

 First Nations communities may also use the program to attract non-Aboriginal homebuyers to properties developed on leasehold land, such as the housing development projects undertaken by the Westbank and Tzeachten First Nations, both of which are located in British Columbia.  

Boater safety a concern along with performance

Have you ever been in a boat on the ocean racing across the water on the tops of waves and suddenly you see a log in front? Wouldn't it be nice at that moment to say, "I'm unsinkable," when you're reaching for a life-jacket? (These are optional attire in recreational watercraft in Canadian waters; however, there must be one lifejacket per passenger in the boat.)
    

 Creating that unsinkable feeling is the basic philosophy of boat-building at Aluminum Chambered Boats (ACB) Inc., Bellingham, WA., where they simply say, “THERE’S INCREDIBLE BEAUTY IN PURE SAFETY.”
     

“She may not be the prettiest girl at the dance, but boy can she dance.” says Larry Wieber, Founder/CEO of ACB. Larry is perhaps underestimating the beauty of the boats he designs and builds, but he is ‘in the know’ about how to make recreational boaters benefit from ACB safety innovations.
     

Bear in mind ACB is something of an American institution and today the company incorporates the same advanced hull technology in their line of recreational and fishing boats as they use in their military vessels.
     

They build boats in the Pacific North West that meet stringent construction and safety requirements, “ACBs are the first and only aluminum boats tank tested by the US Coast Guard and approved without using foam flotation,” said Larry. “The unique chambered flotation system cannot be compromised,” even if the hull and several chambers are punctured!
     

“Hit a rock or log and tear the hull and you will stay afloat and stay alive,” he said. These are high performance watercraft riding on a patented aluminum chambered hull, “a design with a modified V hull and contiguous airtight aluminum chambers.”
     

The system provides critical survivability flotation, Larry said, plus, “incredible stability and reduced fuel burn with unmatched maneuverability.” Add to that a soft air-cushioned ride in the most difficult conditions.
    

 Remember that the US Navy runs a lot ACBs and so does the US Coast Guard. USCG puts crews on US coasts in a 24-foot center console CB-L vessel that handles multiple missions. It is deployed from a cutter in such operations as search and rescue (SAR), maritime law enforcement (MLE), ports and waterways, and coastal security.
     

The design of the CB-L will carry a three-man crew and up to nine passengers and the vessel is equipped with shock-mitigated seating for the crew. The vessel is designed for security services and powered with a Cummins QSD 2.8 230 HP Bravo 1 with Mercury outdrive. “The CB-L’s top speed is,” an incredible, “39.5 knots.”
     

US government and citizens alike operate ACBs in all weather conditions including winter in Alaska. So where did this ability to provide marine safety and security of passengers come from? Larry explained, “ACB has built a team of numerous seasoned military and marine industry professionals with collective skill sets that provide the basis of the ACB construction and logistics team.”
    

 ACB built their reputation for delivering quality on time and on budget by serving customers in all branches of the US military and expanding their market from that. Over the past few years the company has taken the patented rugged, state-of-the-art high performance aluminum boats to government, recreational, and commercial customers on a global basis. VISIT www.acbboats.com

Safety a first concern, along with performance in Aluminum Chambered Boats

Have you ever been in a boat on the ocean racing across the water on the tops of waves and suddenly you see a log in front? Wouldn't it be nice at that moment to say, "I'm unsinkable," when you're reaching for a life-jacket? (These are optional attire in recreational watercraft in Canadian waters; however, there must be one lifejacket per passenger in the boat.)

Creating that unsinkable feeling is the basic philosophy of boat-building at Aluminum Chambered Boats (ACB) Inc., Bellingham, WA., where they simply say, “THERE’S INCREDIBLE BEAUTY IN PURE SAFETY.”

“She may not be the prettiest girl at the dance, but boy can she dance.” says Larry Wieber, Founder/CEO of ACB. Larry is perhaps underestimating the beauty of the boats he designs and builds, but he is ‘in the know’ about how to make recreational boaters benefit from ACB safety innovations.

Bear in mind ACB is something of an American institution and today the company incorporates the same advanced hull technology in their line of recreational and fishing boats as they use in their military vessels.

They build boats in the Pacific North West that meet stringent construction and safety requirements, “ACBs are the first and only aluminum boats tank tested by the US Coast Guard and approved without using foam flotation,” said Larry. “The unique chambered flotation system cannot be compromised,” even if the hull and several chambers are punctured!

“Hit a rock or log and tear the hull and you will stay afloat and stay alive,” he said. These are high performance watercraft riding on a patented aluminum chambered hull, “a design with a modified V hull and contiguous airtight aluminum chambers.”

The system provides critical survivability flotation, Larry said, plus, “incredible stability and reduced fuel burn with unmatched manoeuvrability.” Add to that a soft air-cushioned ride in the most difficult conditions.

Remember that the US Navy runs a lot ACBs and so does the US Coast Guard. USCG puts crews on US coasts in a 24-foot center console CB-L vessel that handles multiple missions. It is deployed from a cutter in such operations as search and rescue (SAR), maritime law enforcement (MLE), ports and waterways, and coastal security.

The design of the CB-L will carry a three-man crew and up to nine passengers and the vessel is equipped with shock-mitigated seating for the crew. The vessel is designed for security services and powered with a Cummins QSD 2.8 230 HP Bravo 1 with Mercury outdrive. “The CB-L’s top speed is,” an incredible, “39.5 knots.”

US government and citizens alike operate ACBs in all weather conditions including winter in Alaska. So where did this ability to provide marine safety and security of passengers come from? Larry explained, “ACB has built a team of numerous seasoned military and marine industry professionals with collective skill sets that provide the basis of the ACB construction and logistics team.”

ACB built their reputation for delivering quality on time and on budget by serving customers in all branches of the US military and expanding their market from that. Over the past few years the company has taken the patented rugged, state-of-the-art high performance aluminum boats to government, recreational, and commercial customers on a global basis. VISIT www.acbboats.com

Making a career out of growing fish on Canada's Pacific Coast

Lauren Edgar, 23, from Klemtu, B.C., is making a career out of fish farming. "I've been working for Marine Harvest Canada for two years full-time and a period of time before that as a part-time employee. I am making career of it." Lauren did a course at Vancouver Island University on shellfish farming last year at VIU. It was a nine-week course, "some in Prince Rupert, some in Nanaimo."
     

She enjoyed the course and school and continues to advance those aspirations by looking at further education opportunities including VIU and on-the-job training. Lauren works out of Klemtu, B.C., on Swindle Island in the central coast. It's the southern end of Tsimshian Nation where she lives and was born and raised. "I work on site in an eight-day shift and we live in a float-house," explained Lauren, "I like it. It's very nice and sometimes it gets interesting during the winter." Winter storms make the water choppy..
     

Lauren feeds MHC Atlantic salmon that are grown by Kitasoo Seafoods Ltd and processed in a facility in Klemtu, "Right now that's my main job, to feed the fish." It's an amazing event each day, whereupon, "The fish really get going, it's all on camera." Daily operations are under the watch of MHC personnel like Lauren,. "We are connected to head office by phone and internet." In her job, "We do one feeding session once-a-day at the present size of the fish in my pens," whereas, "When they're smolts they get more feedings per day." 
      

The work in fish farming is exciting, "It's fun to watch the fish grow and interesting to see how big they get." Lauren describes the routine, "At harvest time," which for the site she works on will be relatively soon; meantime, "Various facets need to be done on site by employees, for example, we do mort-cleaning on 14 pens and go to each pen every second day for inspections with part of the operation automated and part done with a dip-net." Dying fish are rare in the net-pens and they find one or two per pen out of literally thousands of fish, but she is educated about and fully apprised of the potential for disaster on a farm site. "A plankton bloom could really kill a lot of the fish in the pen. A harvest takes about two years to produce. 
    

"We get moved from site to site occasionally depending on the personnel situation, or you might stay there on the same site for many months working eight days in and six days out." 
     

She loves the company, "Marine Harvest Canada is a really good company," and she is knowledgeable about fish farming, "Before Marine Harvest Canada came to Klemtu my dad ran a fish farm that was owned by Kitasoo for four years. He managed the site." Her dad has since moved from Klemtu.
     

She remains a central coast person , "I liked it growing up here and I love living here today," but when she gets a break she travels from the remote area to Campbell River or the Lower Mainland.

A new array for gathering hydro power

The EnCurrent Turbine patented by New Energy Corp. of Calgary, Alberta, is making the rounds in North American waters and the system is proving to be a great adaptation in all kinds of high-flow water systems like Calgary city water outflows, steep Alaskan rivers, high-flow tidal currents on the Inside Passage of Vancouver Island, and icy winter waters of Manitoban rivers.

“We put a 5KWh system in the Ruby River in Alaska. Initially they called for 2.5 KWh but our system was able to pull out that much more electricity from the river current,” said Clayton Bear, one of the principals of New Energy Corporation.

“In Manitoba we tested year-round. At present we are looking at two things: further expansion in Alaska and access to the Rural Electrification Program in B.C.,” said Bear, “which is mostly First Nations accessing the program.”

Elsewhere in the country Clayton attended a conference this spring in Moncton looking into the potential for energy in the Maritimes. “The conference was looking at big projects in the Bay of Fundy. Many companies are looking because there is so much power in that water. The tide rises 10 m per second. It’s an incredible amount of energy.”

The conference showed that Bay of Fundy presents many unresolved technical challenges. The generators as yet cannot withstand the beating of that much water. “They are talking about smaller projects in the immediate future using estuaries with high tidal flows off the bay.”

Meanwhile Bear and business partner Robert Moll have EnCurrent Turbines arrayed in five, ten and 25 KWh systems in Canoe Pass, Manitoba, and Alaska on the Yukon River. The next phase for New Energy is to take their tidal project in Canoe Pass (near Quadra Island on the B.C. coast) to the 250 KWh scale with an array of EnCurrent Turbines. The ultimate goal is to extract five to MWh out of the tidal flow around Quadra Island.

At OREG (Ocean Resource Energy Group) Chris Campbell noted the province is organizing a series of regional meetings with First Nations in 2009 and meanwhile the federal government has put some money into an ocean wave energy project with SyncWave in Ahousaht, a semi-remote First Nation community found outside Tofino in the Nuu chah nulth Nation.

VIU grad a biologist in a beautiful land

Vancouver Island University (VIU) has an education program in fisheries and aquaculture that is a magnet to First Nation youth of the Pacific Coast. Sabrina Halvorsen graduated a four-year degree program to become an Associate Biologist for Nuu Chau Nulth Uu-a-thluk Fisheries in Port Alberni, B.C..

“I am a member of the Uchucklesaht Tribe,” said Sabrina of a community of the Nuu Chah Nulth Nation on the west side of Vancouver Island. She received her childhood education at schools in Uchucklesaht, Bamfield, and Port Alberni; Sabrina entered VIU after working in cultivating oysters outside Barkley Sound.

“When I originally started in the Uchucklesaht oyster farm a science opportunity was presented,” and she seized it and went to work on the VIU degree. Today she does biological science for the NTC, “I’ve been doing a variety of different things this spring. We are doing stream restoration work, crab studies, sea otter studies, and general scientific observations.”

She lives in this remarkably beautiful land, “I like the work and days working in the field are my favourite days.” The office work is immersed in policy papers and proposal writing. The NTC has the greater Nuu chah nulth Nation in mind, which is basically from the height of land all the way down the west side of Vancouver Island.

Historically Nuu chah nulth people had closer relations with their northern neighbours the Kwakwaka’wakw more than with the giant Coast Salish nation opposite those heights.

Sabrina works with regional biologists Jim Lane, Katie Beach, and Roger Dunlop in the NTC lands and fisheries offices. “We have sea lice surveys upcoming, continuation of the sea otter counts, and we are conducting crab surveys. I will also be participating in the Burman and Koauk projects which will be determining Chinook salmon escapement to these rivers”.

She works with the Bamfield Marine Science Centre (U of Vic) to deliver aquatic orientation sessions to youth. “We show them the activities of a biologist and how to sample species such as salmon by removing scales and otoliths for age and origin. We teach them the importance of protecting our natural resources

and what we can do to maintain the natural environment. We also try to engage and encourage the students who are interested in working towards science-based career goals.”

The Uchucklesaht oyster and mussel farm that introduced her to the career is no longer operating. “The oyster farm was so remote a location that it’s hard to find personnel who can do it. I hope my band will start that up again someday.”

VIUFA was established in 1979, said Don Furnell, professor in the department, “offering a two-year Diploma in Fisheries and Aquaculture Technology,” and in time, “the program expanded to include a one-year post degree diploma for students that already had a B.Sc. in biological or environmental sciences.” 

In 1997 the department added a B.Sc. in Fisheries and Aquaculture, “Since opening the department has graduated approximately six hundred students,” said Don, “many of whom were of First Nations descent and sponsored by their various bands.”

Facilities have grown to include two cold water tank farms for rainbow trout and Fraser River white sturgeon. The department has a public involvement hatchery at Chase River in Secwepmec territory.

“VIU has a sea water recirculation system where laboratory specimens are kept and bred,” said Don, “an aquaponics room that grows vegetables in conjunction with warm water fish, and a tropical fish room that breeds and grows aquarium fish for the pet trade.”

VIUFA places equal emphasis on fisheries management and aquaculture R and D. Students take courses in salmonid life histories and management, an advanced course in fisheries management with an emphasis on fisheries politics and global warming, a lake survey field and laboratory based course, a course in hydrology and another in limnology, a course on the biology of fish, and another in invertebrate zoology

Even though many of facilities on campus are related to aquaculture there is a strong fisheries component to all the programs. “Because of the dual emphasis on both fisheries and aquaculture graduates find employment in a wide variety of careers in government, in private aquaculture operations,” he said, “and growing a diversity of organisms such as salmon, oysters, clams, sablefish, sturgeon and marine plants and micro algae.”