Business Ventures

First Nations Construction Company Grows with the Games
"It all started,” said Lyle Leo, lead negotiator for the Lil’wat Nation, “with the vision of pursuing a diversified economy for our Nation that would carry over after 2010.”

What followed is a story of development, from the ground up, of a construction company, majority owned by the Lil’wat Nation, which is using the Games as an opportunity to grow skills, experience and business acumen – one project at a time.

The seed was planted in 2002, during the Bid Phase, when the Lil’wat and Squamish Nations, the Province of British Columbia and the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation entered into a Shared Legacies Agreement which included a commitment to provide the First Nations with significant contracting opportunities.

Looking ahead to Games construction needs, the Lil’wat Nation partnered with an established local company to form Resource Business Ventures (RBV). It also retained a local contracting company, Demidoff Equipment, to provide the kind of management expertise required to take on large civil construction projects.

In 2005, RBV was retained to clear the site at the Whistler Nordic Competition Venue. It delivered on time and on budget, and was immediately awarded another, larger, site preparation contract.

Then in 2006, following the successful completion of the second contract, RBV received a multi-million dollar contract to build major infrastructure at the Whistler Nordic Competition Venue site, including the biathlon stadium, competition trails, roads, bridges, underground services and compounds.

Troy Bikadi joined RBV in July 2005 in a business mentorship position. He left a 20-year career as a heavy-duty mechanic. “Achieving what we’ve done so far took a lot of effort,” said Bikadi. ”The sweetest part for me is the capacity-building – the training and skills development. We see green guys, like carpenters’ apprentices and machine operators, come in and get trained. We’re building infrastructure and diversity that will take us beyond 2010. From a company perspective, this is our taking-off point. I don’t see us looking back.”

Lyle Leo is proud of RBV, the product of careful negotiations and collaboration. “We entered into a partnership with the Province and VANOC that resulted in a new First Nations company that has partnered with industry, created employment, provided skills development and training and proved that partnerships with government do work and have positive, far-reaching results for our community,” said Leo.

As a result of the commitment to provide significant contracting opportunities in the 2002 Shared Legacies Agreement, Newhaven Construction, a Squamish Nation-owned company, has been contracted to build the Day Lodge and other technical and maintenance buildings at the Nordic Centre. Newhaven is also building the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre in the Resort Municipality of Whistler.

“VANOC is very pleased that two of our Four Host First Nations partners, the Lil’wat and Squamish Nations, are playing a key role in the successful construction of the WNCV, which is being built on their shared traditional territories,” says Hilary Dunn, VANOC’s Manager of Aboriginal Participation. “These Nations have taken advantage of the great opportunity the 2010 Winter Games provides to showcase their talents and expertise and to build lasting legacies for their communities.”