Community near The Pas eyes high-tech project

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This article was published 26/07/2018 (2664 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An ambitious and potentially ground breaking project to develop an aerospace parts plant at the Opaskwayak Cree Nation near The Pas is moving closer to getting the go-ahead.

Interviews will be taking place place shortly to fill key positions in the early stages of the enterprise, as the band and the Manitoba Aerospace Association finalize the actual business plan. At this point, the plan is for the plant to produce and assemble a couple of specific machined-metal parts.

The project was conceived more than a year ago as an industry effort to reach out to the Indigenous community of the province and better engage with that community, which will soon represent a significant portion of the provincial labour pool.

Last fall, the provincial education department provided funding for an early feasibility study with the stated goal of having the doors open at the plant, if proven viable, within two years.

That would be a tight time frame even for experienced, well-capitalized industry players, but OCN is getting plenty of support.

“It’s not going to be a cake walk, but none of the reviews along the way have caused us to say it can’t be done,” Wendell Wiebe, CEO of Manitoba Aerospace Association, said.

From OCN’s point of view, Chief Christian Sinclair said when the idea was first presented, his community was keen to explore the possibility.

“When we had that scare a couple of years ago when the Tolko mill was about to shut down, we knew we had to think outside the box,” Sinclair said. “We recognize the demographic shift. We see it in The Pas. We want to see how we can engage our First Nation workers in all industries.”

Although it is being framed as an industry initiative, Kim Westenskow, general manager of Boeing Canada Winnipeg and former chairwoman of the industry association, provided the initial impetus and continues to be a passionate champion of the project.

“We’ve put together a really good effort to understand if it is a business (that will work),” she said. “We need a few more months to understand if it can be a profitable business and if it is something that OCN can take on and actually grow to the extent we would like it to grow to.”

Boeing and Magellan Aerospace are committing to being customers, and the business-plan process will include pre-marketing efforts to explore other potential market customers — for instance, bus- and fire-engine manufacturers in the province — for the kind of components that would be manufactured there.

Westenskow, who likely only has a year and a half left in her posting in Winnipeg, said she would like to see the project move faster. But, she said she understands that OCN needs to take the time to properly secure government support.

“We are being smart about checking the boxes,” she said. “We don’t want to start something up and have it fail because it was not well planned.”

The actual financing for the initiative still needs to be addressed. Sinclair said Canadian Kraft Paper, the company that purchased and is now running the former Tolko operations, has made available a building the venture could use. But, the final business plan will determine the costs and benefits of doing something on a reserve where First Nations tax-free status could impact the financial viability of the project.

The planning so far has roughly sketched out the kind of equipment that would be required, and the estimated costs. Sinclair and his team at OCN’s Paskwayak Business Development Corp. — which has a growing portfolio of business ventures that it already manages, including a sizable investment in marijuana retailer National Access Cannabis — will soon have to put together proposals for funders.

The project may require as much as $20 million in initial capital investment.

In addition to the fundamental challenges facing any entity trying to establish a sustainable, greenfield industry, the fact that this one will be First Nation-owned and in a region that is in crucial need of diversification means there will be plenty of interest in how it works.

“I think this project will help us open the doors for other industry partners to start working with other communities,” Westenskow said. “I hope this will launch other industries to start saying, ‘What else can we do?’ because it does meet both our community’s and our governments’ goals. If we do a good job, it should be something we could replicate.”

In an email exchange, Manitoba’s Minister of Education, Ian Wishart, said, “Project planning work continues, and we hope this new business entity will lead to a more competitive, innovative and diverse aerospace industry in Manitoba.”

Sinclair, who has had plenty of experience developing successful First Nations enterprises elsewhere around the country in his prior career, is well aware of the potential significance of the project.

“It would be the first of its kind in North America,” he said. “It would be a precedent if we can pull this off, which I think we can.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca