Government investment in Aboriginal housing is paying early dividends for Milestone Construction, a new Thunder Bay design-build firm.
The two-year-old company recently moved into new digs over Christmas from Red River Road to Alloy Place.
Established in late 2005, Milestone is a jack-of-all-trades builder offering what owner Kevin Connor calls an "integrated construction solution" firm.
Rather than offering their services to First Nation bands as only a home builder, Milestone provides inspection, design, drafting, specification writing, contract administration, building code analysis and energy efficient products among their specialties and expertise.
His 10-employee company consists of an architectural and engineering technologist and eight carpenters. "We try to hire journeymen carpenters, but they're becoming fewer and far between lately."
Connor's company is also the northwestern Ontario distributor for Thermapan structural insulated panels.
For the last two years, Connor has been building homes on the Pic River First Nation, near Marathon. Thirty homes have been constructed so far and eight renovated units completed.
As a member of the Metis Nation of Ontario, Connor has three Confederation College diplomas in civil engineering technology, architectural technology and construction engineering to his credit.
For 20 years, he's been a familiar face around construction in the northwest working on hundreds of projects with general contractors, engineers and architects .
The former employee at Wing Construction and Dominion Construction has worked on First Nations projects and other noteworthy jobs including Thunder Bay's Magnus Theatre renovations and the Hogarth Riverview Manor long-term care project.
The opportunity to start his own business came while working for an engineering company that was hiring construction management firms for work on First Nations projects. Connor was approached by a First Nation to do the same and he accepted the opportunity.
"I've worked with the tribal council groups in Thunder Bay and had many contacts."
Milestone has spread its work around to other communities and remote areas, including an eight-unit project in Wunnumin Lake First Nations, north of Sioux Lookout, an eight-unit renovation on the Pic Mobert reserve, and last summer it installed insulated panels on homes in Lac Seul and Gull Bay.
"Most of our work is with First Nations and with actual bands primarily," but Milestone has also built a few homes in Thunder Bay.
Milestone is reaping the benefits of new public money for better Native homes, including Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's On-Reserve Housing Program, known as Section 95, which has provided millions to First Nations for affordable housing.
Connor says many of the existing homes in these communities date back to the 1940s and 1960s. Most are not being replaced and new subdivisions are being created such as one in Pic River.
On his 18-person Pic River crew, three carpenters are from Thunder Bay, the rest are picked from the community as carpenter-helpers.
Connor and his employees provide supervision and training for locals who can use these hours toward the Ontario General Carpentry Apprenticeship Training program.
But he laments it's sometimes difficult to produce individual success stories in some of these places because of the lack of Grade 12 schooling.
Besides being a contractor, Connor makes local contributions in other ways. He provides financial support to community groups and has renovated Pic River's Turtle Lodge Healing Centre and its day care centre at no cost.
If something needs to be done, he feels compelled to help out.
"We try to leave as much of the funds here as we can and bring in as little as possible from outside.
"We're here full-time anyway, so if I can get out and give advice or do an inspection on a public building, we're always happy to do that.
"You become a member of the community and have a real connection."
In one instance, where the occupants of a home had developed serious skin conditions, his crews installed (free of charge) a new heat recovery ventilation system to provide clean, fresh air.
Though much of his work is focussed in northwestern Ontario, Connor would like to branch out into the Winnipeg with First Nations projects. "That's our niche."
Last fall, the Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund recognized Connor and Milestone with their Building Communities Award.
