Electric dream

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This article was published 22/12/2015 (3756 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The CEO of a Manitoba lending agency believes Wawasum Energy is “for sure, the real deal.”

A senior official at Manitoba Hydro said the power utility hopes to keep Wawasum busy with power-line construction work for some time.

An official with B.C.-based Rokstad Power, one of the largest power-line construction companies in the country, said its relationship with Wawasum is invaluable for Rokstad.

Wawasum Energy is the kind of company economic development people in the province have been dreaming about for many years.

It is a company owned by indigenous Manitobans and has expertise in a high-demand niche for work in areas that are often near First Nation communities.

It is the only majority First Nation-owned power-line construction company in the country.

The corporate objective of the Winnipeg-based company is to train indigenous people as power-line technicians and equipment operators from the communities in which the work is being done.

It’s already up to more than a dozen staff, has three apprentices and indigenous Manitobans comprise about 70 per cent of the workforce.

Wawasum just completed a two-month project building a power line into the new Lake St. Martin community, about 10 kilometres from Gypsumville. At least one of the workers on that project was from that community.

The enterprising Beardy brothers — Reg, an eight-year veteran power-line technician with Manitoba Hydro, and Ralph, a civil engineer with his own firm that specialized on work with First Nations — know all about that.

Ralph Beardy, from Fox Lake Cree Nation, said they understood Manitoba Hydro required a considerable amount of maintenance work and needed to contract out.

“We thought there was something there,” Ralph Beardy said. “Our business model is to recruit our work force from the First Nations, the fastest-growing and youngest population in the province.”

Reg Beardy, from Fox Lake Cree Nation, said he left Manitoba Hydro and spent two years working in Alberta where there was much more outsourcing of power-line construction than in Manitoba.

He said it gave him some perspective on how that kind of business relationship worked.

“Contracting out that kind of work in Alberta is a big thing but in Manitoba it is new,” he said. “We thought there might be an opportunity to do it in Manitoba.”

Ralph and Reg teamed up with business development veteran Kristinn Finnson two years ago to form Wawasum.

Finnson said when the the business first started they went around and talked to the other major contractors in Manitoba and told them they wanted to do distribution work (as opposed to the higher-voltage transmission lines) and to train aboriginal linemen.

“The history of First Nations people in the power-line business, from our opinion, has been minimized,” Finnson said.

Brent Reed, Manitoba Hydro’s vice-president of customer service and distribution, said Wawasum has done excellent work.

“They do really good, high-quality work and they’re meeting all the deadlines and doing safe work, which is obviously very important,” he said. “And we have more work than our internal staff can do.”

Building capacity within the growing working-age indigenous population in the province is something many in Manitoba, including Manitoba Hydro management, believe will be the secret to the long-term economic success of the province.

Wawasum is likely fortunate to have been able to form a unique association with Rokstad Power Corp, of Coquitlam, B.C.

With 600 employees and operations across the country, including in Manitoba, Rokstad is a leader in the industry.

Marnie Braund, an executive with the company, is enthusiastic about the relationship but acknowledges it is not easy to define.

“It is a bit of an enigma but I don’t mean that in a bad way,” Braund said about Rokstad’s relationship with Wawasum.

Among other things, Wawasum acts as a consultancy for Rokstad in Manitoba in negotiating with First Nations when power lines and rights-of-way encroach on traditional lands or on reserves. Wawasum will also do sub-contracting work for Rokstad.

“We’ve done a number of bids on our paper, as it were, but it’s Wawasum’s skill set and their employees that would execute the work,” she said.

Finnson and the Beardys obviously value their ability to work with Rokstad.

“It is really good,” Finnson said. “We want to work with people who believe in us.”

Both Wawasum and Rokstad officials said they had no interest in engaging in a relationship where indigenous-owned businesses are just used as a prop to win contracts.

“We really want to avoid that tokenism where you just parachute in, do a little something and then you’re out,” she said. “Our relationship with Wawasum is… long-term and mutually beneficial.”

Ian Cramer, the CEO of First People’s Economic Growth Fund, a provincially sponsored lending agency, recently completed a six-figure loan with Wawasum.

As any lender would, Cramer did his due diligence and understands that Manitoba Hydro has plenty of work for many years to come.

“According to Hydro, they are good at what they do, they deliver on time,” Cramer said . “Hydro is happy, so we are happy.”

But not only that, the mandate of Cramer’s fund is to close the standard-of-living gap between First Nations and the mainstream population in Manitoba.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca