Building the value in Haisla community
Haisla buys into accredited BC education
Building the value in Haisla community
By Malcolm McColl
Chief Steve Wilson and the Council of the Haisla Nation are developing the economic role of this First Nation to a remarkable degree in the city of Kitimat, BC and developments occurring around the coastal city. Kitimat, population 11,000, has been a longtime home to Alcan, Methanex, and Eurocan (North America's largest kraft paper mill). In the last half of the 1900s Kitimat became an attractive site for private developments that require a deep-sea port and lots of power. Alcan built the Kemano Hydro Electric Project in the 1980s to produce 896 MW of power for their own use making aluminum and recently announced a huge expansion and committment to Kitimat. Methanex used to produce North American methane and recently downsized their presence in Kitimat but continue to process imported methane in their facilities.
The private ownership model of developing port facilities will continue in Kitimat. "With the port developments we designed the process that will to lead to Haisla Nation's ownership of involvement in economic development," said Chief Wilson. "We are leading port developments ourselves, working on a corporation and a branding program to bring these projects together. We have equity in every single project in our midst, including Kitimat LNG, Cascadia Mining Development, and Pembina Pipelines," and others.
The Beese Cove Haisla I.R. was designated for industrial use in 1997. Chief Wilson said, "The Kitimat LNG group looked at Crown land in the area. They didn't understand the issues of Aboriginal Rights and Title in the area. We began consulting and accommodating their concerns and it was a lot of work going over the Crown's numbers versus ours. We resolved to make Aboriginal Rights and Title and taxation benefits the issues, and offered Haisla resolutions to the problems."
The Haisla 'template' for negotiation developed in response to the consultations that were being asked of these communities. Chief Wilson said, "We assembled a team to answer basic questions from Haisla people: What are we after? We have specific issues in Haisla households. High unemployment is our major concern, and we are dependent on using local resources to create wealth."
Cascadia Materials Inc. is creating Kitimat operations with the Haisla Nation to move Sand Hill aggregate to California and Hawaii. "Our involvement is marine operations, facilities security, and transport of aggregate. We are designing the community's capacity to fit into major developments by receiving direct awards to do the work." Chief Wilson said, "Our challenge is to improve the educational standards of our community. We bought Kitimat Valley Institute to initiate educational improvements and create employment readiness programs."
A Master Mariner course has been introduced along with other courses to train Haisla people for Alcan, Kitimat LNG, and Cascade opportunities, and others. "We intend to share resources with other coastal First Nations and establish BCIT partnerships. We know the system of education is not working. Our people have shown they can achieve academic readiness," when an employment readiness program delivered algebra classes that saw 75% averages as the norm in the class of 15.
"Many of our kids are diagnosed as Special Needs. We are fixing that because community awareness says it is high time we do that – a 75% average in algebra says the problem is not us. And now is the right opportunity to prove it." Chief Wilson noted, "We have 1,600 on our band list, about half of whom live at Kitamat Village on-reserve," another half again, he said, live in Kitimat, and the rest are in Terrace or Vancouver. At one time the Haisla prospered in commercial fishing but everybody recalls a devastating end of that prosperity, and still feels it.
"I believe marine operations are a natural fit with a modern context for meaningful careers in our traditional territories. Our community lies at the centre of our traditional territory of 5,000 square miles." The chief noted, "We have 18 projects underway, and independent power is the next one." Kitimat is proposing a 30MW run-of-river project that delivers power for 7-cents a watt out of the Kitimat River. "We have our challenges, especially in terms of our land base. We need more habitable land to house our community. We are currently spending $2 million on consultants that would be nice to spend in our own community, on our own expertise." The goal is keeping the value in the community.
Patti Schom-Moffatt works for the Kitimat LNG project set for Beese Cove about 11 km from the city of Kitimat. Liquified natural gas will be imported, converted from liquid to gas, and shipped across North America to the waiting marketplace. Where the supply comes from, said Schom-Moffatt, "will be dependent on who has the volume we need, when we need it. It may come from Russia, Australia, Malaysia, or Alaska.
Calgary-based Kitimat LNG is busy securing the natural gas that will find its way into the supply chain. "We are the only point of entry on the west coast north of Mexico," said Schom-Moffatt. "And it may stay that way."
The demand for natural gas is growing in North America and supply is dwindling. The site on Haisla property will put the city into a position as an internationally significant place. "We are working outside the bounds of treaty with a willing partner who wants to participate in the LNG plans for the North American west coast." Schom-Moffatt said, "Communities both Haisla and Kitimat found these prospects to their liking. Haisla has been heavily involved assessing the environmental concerns of the project."
The construction of the LNG off-loading and processing facilities will take an estimated 700 employees, then the operations proceed with 50 full-time employees. "Our facilities are technologically advanced and do not require a great deal of supervision." The hiring for the construction phase of the Kitimat LNG project will begin in the Spring of 2007, upon receipt of local permits and approvals.
Haisla buys into accredited BC education
By Malcolm McColl
The Kitimat Valley Institute is 50 percent owned by the Haisla Nation, and they took it on in March 2006. The Haisla spent over a year preparing for ownership of the KVI. They have a specific goal of creating job readiness and expanding the community's capacity to exploit both employment and economic development (ownership) opportunities.
Chief Steve Wilson said, "In Haisla Territory we have crafted a vision for our future that is based on the quality of our character, and not on the colour of our skin. We have based our dream on bringing value to the table of Canadian soci-ety and contributing to the well-being of our fellow man whoever they may be. In that vision the foundation has been laid for many important companies, regionally, nationally, and internationally."
The Chief's remarks derive from a Haisla document, Honour of the Crown, widely distributed to government and business people in recent days. "These visionary companies in their own right for agreeing to be a part of this strategy have heard our call to arms and have heeded our counsel. They have made a conscious decision to invest time and resources into our vision because it is good for their business. That is good for everyone!"
The Haisla have created community level partnerships to increase educational preparedness in their own folks. Nancy McNab has been a primary facilitator of education in Kitimat, BC. She founded the Kitimat Valley Institute in 2002 to deliver Power Engineering training in the city. It wasn't long before other educational concerns could be met and addressed.
"I am a firm believer in education. People need it to get the good jobs. Years ago you didn't need it to make a decent living. Nowa-days you must have the education."
McNab said, "We have a job readiness program underway that contains 27 students. They are pre-paring to graduate at the Dogwood (matriculation) level," qualified for post-graduate consideration with math, physics, social studies, and communications. KVI continues to run a popular Power Engineering Program that started on behalf of Alcan who realized they wanted local talent to take local opportunities. (Part ownership of the institute belongs to Alcan). Furthermore KVI offers a Pre-Industrial Training Program delivered under the partnership of ENFORM using local instructors.
The place is busy. "In ten months we have students with grade 8 to 10 education moving through the subjects required to get their grade 12. The adult learners are obtaining life skills. This program provide experiences to help people move forward with their lives, to help them buckle down," and work things out. A pilot program in January that led to Haisla ownership enroled 25 students and saw 20 completions in the principles of math, and communications recieving their Dogwood certificate. McNab has known for a long time what the provincial exams bore out from the pilot project. Locals are waiting to learn. "Their marks at the end of the project were right up there with everybody else in the province."
KVI is comfortably situated in a former elementary school that underwent extensive renovation. "It is working out very well. Chief Steve Wilson has promoted Kitimat and his own community as a potential workforce for new industries, and promoted these KVI educational opportunities to communities as far away as Greenville, Nisga'a Nation. McNab said, "The bottom line is that a lot of new deals are coming with huge opportunities for First Nation people who meet the requirements of industry."
She said it's funny how the little things count, like the importance of obtaining a driver's license, previously a meaningless qualification in this predominantly maritime community.