BIRCH ISLAND—Community members gathered to celebrate and cut the ribbon on a new $8,341,326 subdivision project that includes a new 930 metre road into the community, 15 new residential lots along with 700 metres of water and sewer lines to service the lots.
The cheers of students walking down the pathway from Shawanosowe School could be heard reverberating across the new lots as they made their way to the ceremony.
Whitefish River First Nation (WRFN) Ogimaa Rodney Nahwegahbow cut the ceremonial ribbon following a traditional blessing provided by Elder Leona Nahwegahbow (Elder Nahwegahbow is also a band councillor). The WRFN chief was backed by members of the community, project workers and the students as he made the cut to officially open the project that has been in the works since February 2020.
Ogimaa Nahwegahbow noted that the chief and council of the time had determined that the demand for housing was rising and opened an open competition to supply project management. FleishmanHillard HighRoad (FHR) won the bid for project management and First Nations Engineering Services Ltd. was chosen as design engineers. The decision to finance the project through band funds was prompted by the pressing need for housing in the community, he said.
The design costs were borne by Indigenous Services Canada (ISC), a federal government department who came on board as a funding partner on the project and by 2022 the design was off the drawing board and ready for bids. Of the two bids received, Sudbury’s Checcetto and Sons Ltd. were the chosen by First Nations Engineering Services Ltd. (FNSEL) (a 100 percent Indigenous-owned engineering company based in Oshwekan, Ontario) and in September of that year the project was approved by ISC.
Next up was the construction of the first phase of five housing units by Espanola’s Lignum Builders Ltd. and substantial completion of the 15-lot subdivision, while the future includes a recently issued tender for three more houses (to be completed by March 2025) and another anticipated three housing unit starts by the band.
“The 15-lot subdivision is expected to be filled within the next two to three years,” said Ogimaa Nahwegahbow. “This means that council will work towards another subdivision project as it does take years to have serviced lots ready for housing.”
The new road was named Shebahonaning following a contest won by community member Edward Nahwegahbow. The chief explained that the name is Anishinaabemowin for Killarney—“which is our home town as well.”
There were plenty of acknowledgment to go round and Ogimaa Nahwegahbow noted individuals in the organizations involved in the project, including ICS’s senior engineer Cheng Deng and capital management officers Derek Edwardson and Haily Eggleston; project lead engineers Matt Douglas and Kelvin Jamieson; FNESL general manager Craig Baker, project manager Joanne Recollet and contract administrator Kyle Gee; Ceccetto and Sons Ltd. general manager Vaughn Blacklock, project supervisor Paul Lafantaisie and site foreman Marc Lepine; and Lignum Builders Ltd. president Brant LeClair, project manager Jeff Bint and site supervisor Clint Constantineau.
“We are very proud of everything that’s taken place recently and chi-miigwetch to everyone who came out today to celebrate,” said Ogimaa Nahwegahbow, before inviting everyone back to the elders’ centre for light refreshments.
