Dave Erismann is Executive Director of the Ladysmith Maritime Society that hosted a book signing in late summer 2010 that featured a couple of local First Nation writers putting their book titles on sale. “We have a great relationship with the Stz’uminus First Nation and a lot of community use by members.”
A recent book signing was another example of the community use of the LMS facilities. “We had a very successful Book Launch of ‘Pulling for Stz’uminus: The Pearl Harris Story,’” and Erismann arranged a lot of the publicity that went along with the event. “The book signing was held on Saturday, September 4th 2010, at which time,” says Erismann, “The Pearl Harris Story” book was launched at the LMS Community Marina,
Erismannsays, “Community members from Stz’uminus First Nation (SFN) and Town of Ladysmith attended the reading of “Pulling for Stz’uminus: The Pearl Harris Story,” and a complimentary BBQ salmon lunch was provided along with the opportunity to purchase the book, “and have Pearl sign their copy.” The book by Mabel Mitchell, Wild Women was also launched during this event. The books are a series of new books for Stz’uminus to provide education to elementary school children of the cultural and history of Stz’uminus.
The books describe how since time immemorial the people of Stz’uminus Nation lived in the heart of the Gulf Islands, and Erismann says LMS wants to be involved with the culture that precedes the activities of a modern day maritime hub like Ladysmith. The book signing with Pearl Harris and release of Mabel’s book is part of the LMS role in community. LMS facilities are public-use and oriented with modern marine services like the LMS Community Marina, as well as historical records and displays in the society’s museum, and these operations are found in Ladysmith harbour.
“We are the first marina on your port side after you enter the harbour to Ladysmith,” says Erismann. ”We are located convenient to the town center, the railway station, Transfer Beach and the local transit system - the Ladysmith trolley, which stops just steps away from our marina, and on sale now, ‘Pulling for Stz’uminus: The Pearl Harris Story’”
Harvey Behn is the General Manager of Eh-Cho Dene Enterprises in Fort Nelson, B.C., a company and a community at the centre of a huge oil and gas region in full industrial bloom. It doesn’t get any more industrially active in oil and gas than it is right now in the surroundings of Fort Nelson, says Behn.
It is his ancestral home as much as his current home, whereas Behn is educated in oil and gas development with a Petroleum Engineering degree from University of Wyoming. “We are riding a tsunami of new development in the oil and gas industry around us, and we are surrounded by industry, government, and then there’s us, little Indians on the bottom trying to get up on the wave and ride it to survive.”
He stares at the spending program underway by oil and gas exploration companies (the number of which are too many to count, much less name) and he reflects upon the impact to the environment, the lifestyle of people in the area, and the ways to make opportunities a reality for his community.
As general manager of Eh-Cho Dene Enterprises construction company he employs up to 120 people during major construction projects. The company history dates back to the early 1980s, and in the past 20 years the Fort Nelson Dene people have established a lot of thriving businesses that operate in the town and region; many residents of the 500-person reserve either work for Dene-owned businesses or own one themselves. (Another 300 members buy or rent homes in Fort Nelson or area.)
The current pace of business activity is a little daunting even to a professional oil man with a long career like Behn. “Just one oil company, for example, has a $1.2 billion exploration budget to outlay in drilling and all the obligations.” Behn’s goal is to put Eh-Cho Dene trucks and equipment into a few of these expansive operations. Fort Nelson is their epicentre of activity, a place where Behn was born and raised. He also sits on a six-member council, while the Eh-Cho Dene company is a limited owned by the Band, and run by a six-member board of directors.
Illustrative of how busy the activity is in Fort Nelson, says Behn, “This year there was no spring break or slow-down in exploration activity. It was non-stop this year and we expect it to be running flat-out again this coming 2011.” This is good news for the 85 percent First Nation employees under his management. It makes for a thriving reserve adjacent Fort Nelson.
Chief Charlie Williams is working on an extensive program of revitalization and has the village site of Hopetown, B.C., on Watson Island, coming back to life, “We began August 20, 2010, with a team of archaeologists and experienced assistants, with the main purpose of starting to dig in sensitive areas containing human remains, then remediation of sites containing fuel tanks,” says Chief Williams.
It’s a large team of archaeologists and labourers working under Hartley Odwak’s Sources Archaeological & Heritage Consultants, and the project got legs once the remediation of decrepit fuel storage facilities was approved by INAC. The ultimate purpose is to revitalize a community that was in a moribund state of existence. The Hopetown project has a planner in Cari St. Pierre who has a close association with the Gwawaenuk of Hopetown since 2004.
The chief says, “The project came about after two years of community meetings long before the men and equipment began to assemble, and we had the usual minor glitches to deal with. There was a muddle of things including a decrepit electrical generation system, a lot of 45 gallon fuel drums, and a major clean-up of the village site.” Essentially the Gwawaenuk people of Hopetown are dealing with a six-acre village site on Indian Reserve property that was their home due east of Port Hardy since time immemorial.
The project is assisted on the environmental responsibilities by HAZCO Environmental and that company hired nine people from the First Nations to assist in remediation of a 4,000 year old site of human habitation, and First Nations are on hand to supply first aid personnel. The process is geared toward completion by October 31, 2010.
"Then we move to the community planning phase, and that will take seven years to complete,” says Chief Williams. The chief notes, “Hopetown was kept alive by Henry Speck, an elder of Gwawaenuk who never gave up the site. Because of Henry we are able to be in Hopetown doing the right thing by our nation.”
The community will be revitalized by new technology in green energy to supply cleaner energy to new housing and community facilities. Project manager St. Pierre says, “This energy system will be a hybrid green energy system applicable to remote areas, supplied by Energy Alternatives.”
St. Pierre notes that the project includes remediation of an important creek on Watson Island, “bringing the creek back to Salmon-bearing standards. That is an exciting prospect in its own right.”
Hazco Environmental engaged in Hopetown revitalization
Hazco Environmental won the bid to work in Hopetown, B.C., on the restoration of foreshore, reclamation of a valuable creek, and soil remediation of about 4,000 CM of fuel-contaminated soil. Mike Torney is the Hazco person in charge of the project, “It’s clean-up of contaminated soil from leaky fuel tanks and 45-gallon fuel drums, and the amount of the material is found at a depth that would fill about 600 tandem-truck loads of soil.”
Torney explains, “The soil is screened on-site and all of it is put on a picking table to be closely examined by archaeologists. It’s a lot of work, and nothing can leave the site without going through the process.” The soil is barged out of Hopetown (on Watson Island, somewhat adjacent to the east of Port Hardy), “and taken to the Hazco Mount Waddington Bioremediation facility in Port McNeill.”
The re-mediated soil is used by the Mount Waddington landfill operators who use it as covering material. Meanwhile, back in Hopetown, Hazco will back-fill the hole left by soil remediation while recyclers take away the oil drums and tanks. Torney says, “The project involves a lot of logistics due to the remoteness of the location, and communications are an issue as well as the need for barging everything.” It is, however, “a beautiful site. I’ve been there both summer and winter.”
The Hopetown community was kept alive by Henry Speck, Kwakwak'awakw (Kwakiutl) carver with over two decades of carving experience. Henry and his wife were the only two permanent residents. Another concern for Hazco is the foreshore that was crumbling and threatening the existence of valuable midden sites. (Midden is by definition “a mound of domestic refuse containing shells and animal bones marking the site of a prehistoric settlement.” )
“We are responsible for rebuilding the foreshore to protect the midden sites, and we are restoring a creek to salmon-bearing standards. The project is geared toward completion by end of October or mid-November at the latest. Hazco has seen a busy year in 2010 working on First Nation environmental remediation projects. These kinds of projects compose a growing portfolio of First Nation work in Hazco’s sphere of operations. “We always hire locally and concentrate some of our effort on skills development. These days these communities are all about building new capacity.” He says it’s good for Hazco, where he has worked for the past eight years of his 15 years in environmental remediation. “It’s good for everybody.”
Community revitalization by Kwicksutaineuk on Gilford Island
Kerr Wood Leidal Associates Ltd. provided the consulting engineering services on the infrastructure being built on Gilford Island. Jurek Bzowski was the project engineer, and Jurek says, “We worked on the water and wastewater management system and the power generation system. The remoteness presented some challenges, but the contractors figured it out.”
The Gilford Island community water problems had to be resolved and a new sewage treatment system had to be installed. “The community laid out a new subdivision and now they have good water in place to allow a return of members.” Jurek sees the project as, “Pure progress. They have turned an exodus into an influx.”
Under the Kwicksutaineuk leadership of Chief Bob Chamberlin the Gilford Island community revitalization began with rearranged layout of housing at foreshore, and construction of brand new houses in the subdivision. Derik Ewen of Ewen Contracting is acting general contractor, “We have three houses under construction. They will be in lock-up condition by the end of October,” and all six will be ready to accommodate new owners in March, 2011.
The work on other housing and community development will ensue beginning next spring. Gilford Island is revitalized by a process supplied by Slegg Lumber, and Layne Ward, Contract Sales, works closely with Richard Maris, Slegg North Island Representative, on projects like this. Ward calls it a logistics effort between customer, in this case, Kwicksutaneuk Nation, and General Contractor, Ewen Contracting, and the gentlemen from Slegg.
“Richard gives me the game plan,” says Ward, operating in the Cumberland branch of Slegg, “and I assemble delivery of all the components.” The Cumberland branch is become an important assembly point for Slegg Lumber in delivering building products to North Vancouver Island customers. “Everything is on-site in Cumberland and the logistics are much better for our North Island customers since this branch opened two years ago,” says Ward.
They have 50 employees and all the trucks, cranes, and equipment to deliver housing packages like the six going up in Gilford Island this month. “These construction sites are practically remote, and it all gets there on time, I get a list on Monday, I quote by Tuesday, the purchase order is delivered in the day or two after, and the goods are booked for delivery Friday.” The Slegg family owns the Slegg Lumber and affiliated companies that operate outlets on the west coast. Layne Ward and Richard Maris have each had life-long careers in the lumber business.
Sources Archaeology specializes in Kwakwala speaking region
Hartley Odwak has made a specialization of the archaeology on the Inside Passage as it relates directly to the Kwakwala speaking people. “I began Sources Archaeology in 1997,” says Odwak, “I became interested in recording the sites of the First Nations and their ancestry on North Vancouver Island.” It serves more than posterity. “”We solve problems with archaeology, by searching about where people were, and how long they have been there.”
They also preserve a knowledge stream that might just disappear in the face of change, be it weather, human interaction, and in the case of Hopetown, B.C., the revitalization of a community that thrived well past first contact with the industrial age. “We often work to catch something before it’s gone, and in some cases you have one chance at gaining information from years gone by.”
INAC consented to funding when the Gwawaneuk leadership needed foreshore middens studied and archaeology conducted at the same site in their community of Hopetown as the soil remediation work currently underway by Hazco Environmental. “These are my favourite projects,” says Odwak. “The Band comes to us with a proposal under their direction and control and they tell us, ‘Here’s what we want done,’ and we proceed under their direction.”
For Odwak it’s about the research. “We specialize in what used to be known as the Southern Kwalguilth, the Kwak’awak’wakw people,” with a focus on these First Nations, which span from Quatsino to Fort Rupert to Hopetown, and beyond. “It’s a proven 5,000 year human history in the community,” says Odwak. New carbon dating from the site is intended to prove this. “We’re finding a lot of animal bones.”
Harvey Behn is the General Manager of Eh-Cho Dene Enterprises in Fort Nelson, B.C., a company and a community at the centre of a huge oil and gas region in full industrial bloom. It doesn’t get any more industrially active in oil and gas than it is right now in the surroundings of Fort Nelson, says Harvey.
It is his ancestral home as much as his current home, whereas Harvey is educated in oil and gas development with a Petroleum Engineering degree from University of Wyoming. “We are riding a tsunami of new development in the oil and gas industry around us, and we are surrounded by industry, government, and then there’s us, little Indians on the bottom trying to get up on the wave and ride it to survive.”
He stares at the spending program underway by oil and gas exploration companies (the number of which are too many to count, much less name) and he reflects upon the impact to the environment, the lifestyle of people in the area, and the ways to make opportunities a reality for his community.
As general manager of Eh-Cho Dene Enterprises construction company he employs up to 120 people during major construction projects. The company history dates back to the early 1980s, and in the past 20 years the Fort Nelson Dene people have established a lot of thriving businesses that operate in the town and region; many residents of the 500-person reserve either work for Dene-owned businesses or own one themselves. (Another 300 members buy or rent homes in Fort Nelson or area.)
The current pace of business activity is a little daunting even to a professional oil man with a long career like Harvey. “Just one oil company, for example, has a $1.2 billion exploration budget to outlay in drilling and all the obligations.” Harvey’s goal is to put Eh-Cho Dene trucks and equipment into a few of these expansive operations. Fort Nelson is their epicentre of activity, a place where Harvey was born and raised. He also sits on a six-member council, while the Eh-Cho Dene company is a limited owned by the Band, and run by a six-member board of directors.
Illustrative of how busy the activity is in Fort Nelson, says Harvey, “This year there was no spring break or slow-down in exploration activity. It was non-stop this year and we expect it to be running flat-out again this coming 2011.” This is good news for the 85 percent First Nation employees under his management. It makes for a thriving reserve adjacent Fort Nelson.
Millbrook First Nation in Truro, Nova Scotia, is well-positioned to develop their community into a self-sufficient First Nation, says Chief Lawrence Paul, “We have a wide range of developments underway, including a land-based aquaculture development growing Arctic Char,” and the chief notes the reason for a land-based growing facility, “Apparently the saltwater is too contaminated to grow healthy fish for human consumption so they are growing them in a land-based re-circulation system.”
He says the Arctic char are currently growing in the tanks in a Millbrook-owned facility, “There is a building on our Millbrook First Nation property, leased from us, and a few tents. They are hatching and beginning to grow out the salmon and trout.” This is but one in a list of economic developments that puts the Millbrook First Nation on the pathway to self-sufficiency.
“We developed the Truro Power Centre in 2001, which now includes a call centre, motel, RV park, restaurant, and Tim Hortons,” and an anchor tenant in Sobey’s, which was the first tenant at the Truro Power Centre. On a satellite-reserve in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Millbrook First Nation has a new building that General Dynamics leased a couple years ago. General Dynamics will be designing, maintaining, and servicing software for the new Canadian Forces Sikorsky helicopters, which will begin arriving in Dartmouth in November 2010.
In fact, this Mi'kmaq First Nation in Nova Scotia governs the reserves of Millbrook IR 27, Cole Harbour 30, Beaver Lake I.R. 17, Sheet Harbour IR 36, Truro 27a, Truro 27b,and Truro 27c. Chief Paul works with a 12-member council that has highly qualified personnel in elected positions. They are elected from a membership over 1,400, “Closer to 1,500,” says the chief, “and that will increase to we expect close to 1,800 with a recent B.C. Supreme Court decision,” McIvor v. Canada (Registrar of Indian and Northern Affairs), [2009] B.C.J. No. 669, the B.C. Court of Appeal, “that affects Band membership across Canada.”
Prior to the current endeavors in economic development, says Lawrence, “our focus had been on the Highway 102 Connector to the TransCanada Highway. Now the focus is on a new hotel in immediate vicinity to Truro, Nova Scotia, in a destination-oriented tourism property that will include an indoor climate-controlled waterpark. “It will be busy from September to May each year,” says the chief.
At the Cole Harbour reserve the Millbrook First Nation has VLT (Video Lottery Terminals) making them money. “These VLT’s are good income for Millbrook,” says the chief, “big breadwinners.” The VLT’s supplied much needed income for some of the current development that Millbrook is undergoing, and much-needed cash benefits to the community membership. “Every man, woman, and child receives $1,000 in the third week of June and $1,500 each November. For those under 19 years of age the money is held in trust until they become of-age.”
The Millbrook community is able to thrive and people are working, “We are creating jobs for ourselves and adding community services, like a health centre and a youth centre. Our kids are enrolled in the public school system. We have 19 graduates coming out of high school this year.
“We have accessed programs at university and Nova Scotia Community College trades so our graduates can pursue post-secondary opportunities. Our administrators have university educations. For example, Alex Code, Band Manager, got a B.Admin at University of New Brunswick.”
Millbrook’s leadership mentored a handful of their members to become educated and available for administrative duties for a growing group of Millbrook communities. Once the 102 connector highway was established, due to no small amount of lobbying by Millbrook, they obtained access to the mainstream of provincial life and commercial opportunities began to emerge.
“Commercially we are doing well, and the goal is self-sufficiency,” says Lawrence. “We are breaking away from government dependency and economic development is our course.” The excitement around Millbrook these days relates to the new hotel, naturally, “a $27 million facility that will employ skilled workers when it’s built,” and meanwhile, contracts to build will supplies jobs for a pool of labour.
Chief Lawrence Paul is an elder now, and he had a long career in various kinds of endeavors, “I was an auto body man, a furnace repair man, I went to business college, and Nova Scotia Agriculture College. I was in the army in 1951,” where he spent time in Germany during the post-war period of German reconstruction. He says, “In 1984, I decided to run for chief,” and he has served 14 consecutive terms now, 28 years in the office. “I am not ready for retirement. I have another term in me after this one.”
About 700 people live in the Millbrook sub-divisions beside Truro, “We have Band members all over Canada and the U.S.,” and those members can be proud of their ancestral home, “Native people are going to go forward same as the rest of society,” says the chief, “toward self-sufficiency and into the fight for the almighty dollar,” he quips. “Now that we have leveled the playing field we are promoting education as the way forward for our people.”
Self-sufficiency is in the not-too-distant future. “The recession hurt us too, but we recovered and we have opportunities to pursue that will make it happen sooner rather than later,” including management of the building and Band-owned property in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Glenn Squires is CEO of Pacrim Hospitality Services of Halifax that developed and manages the Super 8 Motel located at the power centre, and Glenn says Millbrook's practical business model works well for the firm, one of Canada's largest privately-owned hotel management companies.
"We enjoy working with Millbrook and had a great experience with the partnership model, which works to the advantage of all," says Squires. "The relationship is very collaborative and geared to a win-win over the duration of any given project. We have done several quite successful projects with Millbrook and plan to do more in the future."
Power Centre businesses include a multiplex theatre, sit-down and drive-through restaurants, a 50-room hotel, a recreational vehicle retailer, a service station, a call centre, an aquaculture facility and the Glooscap Heritage Centre. Truro Power Centre is not the only location Millbrook has to offer for partnership opportunities.
The band owns other lands in Nova Scotia, including 19 hectares in Cole Harbour. In the past five years, the area has seen significant activity, and the Band built two apartment buildings in 2003 and 2007 worth more than $11 million. The buildings were designed specifically for empty nesters.
