NDC hailing partnership with engineering firm

Duane Hicks

Naicatchewenin Development Corp. (NDC) has teamed up with Saulteaux Consulting & Engineering, opening an office at 242 Scott St. here in the past month.
Saulteaux Consulting & Engineering’s principals, Dean Bethune and Todd Bruyere of Couchiching First Nation, bring to the table more than 35 years’ combined experience as technical services advisors and technical services engineers with Pwi-Di-Goo-Zing Ne-Yaa-Zhing Advisory Services.
The company was formed more than a year ago while Bethune and Bruyere still were with Pwi-Di-Goo. But their partnership with NDC solidified about six months ago, and now is being promoted with the opening of the shared office.
Business has built up to a point where Bethune and Bruyere, along with team members Elissa Green, Jennifer Ivey, and Jordan Forbes, now are consistently busy with jobs in Rainy River District, elsewhere in Ontario, and even a few in Manitoba.
“This partnership [is] another chance for NDC to diversify its business portfolio and expand to other sectors, not just the mining sector,” Tony Marinaro, chief business development officer for NDC, said during an interview Friday.
“We could get into residential, commercial, industrial—there’s so many different areas that we can expand,” he noted.
“Bringing Todd and Dean into this venture with the new company they have formed, Saulteaux Consulting & Engineering, it really does open a lot of doors for us,” Marinaro added.
“They bring the expertise, and years and years and years of experience,” he remarked.
“They’re very, very well-connected in the industry, allowing us to be able to bid on projects across the country,” explained Marinaro, who has worked with Bethune and Bruyere for many years.
Bruyere noted Saulteaux Consulting & Engineering fills a niche here in that it’s the only local firm of its type.
“There’s not too many professional engineers in Fort Frances, and I don’t know if there’s any that hold a certificate of authorization which allows an engineer to provide services to the public,” he said.
Saulteaux Consulting & Engineering so far has done numerous projects in Rainy River District for area First Nations, municipalities, businesses (such as The Place, North American Lumber, and Energy Fitness) and agencies (like the Rainy River District Social Services Administration Board and Family & Children’s Services).
These have ranged from managing landfill site construction and water treatment plant improvements to engineering designs for building renovations.
“We do a lot of design across the district,” stressed Bethune.
Saulteaux Consulting & Engineering also has been very busy doing asset condition reports for First Nation communities in several different tribal areas. These reports are a requirement of Indian Affairs Canada.
Bethune said Saulteaux currently is doing asset condition reports in 29 First Nation communities in Northern Ontario.
He added they expect this practice to be a fairly steady part of their business, noting, “We’re hoping to average about 25 a year.”
A major benefit to the partnership is the networking opportunities provided by the number of contacts the partners have.
“The contacts that we have, we both kind of augment each other that way. They know people, I know people,” reasoned Bethune, adding NDC is getting into more economic development ventures and there’s often a need for engineering services when undertaking such ventures.
For example, a mine drilling job might require a road built.
Saulteaux Consulting & Engineering can provide services ranging from engineering consulting, project management, engineering design, and asset condition reporting to planning and feasibility studies, business plans, and environmental, renewable energy, and infrastructure projects.
While it only has five team members right now, Bethune said the firm has two other engineering firms they work with out of Thunder Bay and southern Ontario, with a total of 440 employees between the two of them.
“We act as project managers and we pull on resources we need from either one of them,” he explained. “And we’ve also got a number of architects we work with.
“We have some other smaller companies we work with, depending on what we’re doing.
“We can basically do anything that needs to be done from an engineering point of view, and even join up with architects­—we’ll do structural and project management and they do the architectural-type work,” added Bethune.
“Being able to network with other engineering firms from down east brings additional capacity because it allows us to access different types of engineering specialities, such as mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, whatever else is required,” echoed Marinaro.
Perhaps just as important, Saulteaux Consulting & Engineering could be an employer for up and coming professionals here.
“The biggest advantage from our perspective is it provides a local professional company where we can have our young people go away to school and have a place where they can come back to and work as professional engineers,” said NDC CEO Jeremiah Windego.
“That’s really something we’re missing right now, because when young people go away from the community and go to school, they have to leave to find employment,” he added. “I think provides an excellent opportunity to train professionals from any of the communities in the Fort Frances area and give them support and a place to work without having to leave the area.”
Another plus is the storefront location now open in downtown Fort Frances. This acts as a home base for Saulteaux Consulting & Engineering, as well as a satellite office for NDC, which is involved in other ventures, including drilling, mine security, and food services.
“The work we always had was through word of mouth,” noted Bruyere. “We never advertised, but we were always busy.”
“We wanted to have a local presence for NDC and Saulteaux Consulting & Engineering,” said Marinaro.
“Having a local presence is pretty important, working with municipalities—just having the exposure locally,” he stressed.
“Having a Fort Frances office definitely gives NDC better exposure to the area, and with our partnerships, we need a storefront in Fort Frances we can operate out of, so we can maintain a lot of the partnerships we’ve created,” said Windego, who along with Marinaro, is also a project manager for NDC.
“As well, it provides us with a central location when dealing with our partner communities,” he added. “We work with quite a few First Nation communities in the area, and this will provide us a central location to help us manage those projects.
“I think it’s all about being good neighbours. A lot of things we’re doing bring benefits to this area for natives and non-natives, and Naicatchewnin, we want to be good neighbours in business,” remarked Windego. “I think having an office in Fort Frances goes a long way to building that relationship.”
NDC will hold a grand opening at the Scott Street location in the near future, with district leaders invited to attend.
For more information on Saulteaux Consulting & Engineering, drop by the office at 242 Scott St. or visit www.sceinc.ca
For more information about NDC, contact Marinaro at cbdo@ndevcorp.ca or check out www.naicatcheweninfirstnation.ca