Saulteaux Consulting & Engineering Inc. is a success story by any definition. But what makes this Fort Frances-based company special is its perfect combination of entrepreneurship and First Nations partnerships.
Saulteaux CEO Dean Bethune and senior project engineer Todd Bruyere founded the company in 2010 while working for the Pwi-Di-Goo-Zing Ne-Yaa-Zhing Advisory Services Tribal Council in Fort Frances. Both are from the area originally.
“We started, just the two of us, partnering with the Naicatchewenin Development Corporation (operated by Naicatchewenin First Nation),” Bruyere said. He and Bethune continued to work at the tribal council during the first year to “test the waters” with their new firm. As it turned out, the waters were more than welcoming. “We added two people who were local here, and then we grew from there.”
Saulteaux is the only engineering consultant based in the Rainy River District, and employs 10 full-time staff, hiring part-time and contract workers as needed for specific projects. The company provides a number of services including project development and management, planning studies, engineering consulting and design, and Asset Condition Reporting System (ACRS) services. They also provide summer job opportunities for engineering students and engineering assistant intern positions for high school students during a school term.
One major ongoing project is the management of the workers’ camp and the mine site buildings during the construction of the New Gold’s Rainy River Project mine, located 65 kilometres northwest of Fort Frances. Setup of the Atkinson Road Camp included site locating and preparation, sourcing and setting up modular trailers (bunks, kitchen, common areas, support trailers, etc.), hooking up the water supply and sewage systems, upgrading the roads, managing backup power generators, and ensuring that construction and operations meet provincial code and requirements.
“It’s like constructing and managing a little town, a 600-person town,” Bruyere said. “This was an exceptional project for us — we’ve never had one this big.”
To help provide this service, Saulteaux, Naicatchewenin First Nation and Rainy River First Nations created Onikaajigan Construction LP. Bruyere said that based on the success of the Atkinson Road Camp, this spinoff company could provide similar services for other construction and contractor camps in the future, particularly on First Nation projects.
Other projects include project inspection during the construction of a solar generating farm for Rainy River First Nation, flood remediation for lakeshore properties in Couchiching First Nation, and an 8,000-square-foot addition to a multi-use facility in Mitaanjigamiing First Nation. This was one of the first projects Saulteaux undertook — and was also one of the most fulfilling.
“It’s a beautiful facility. Recreation buildings like this are so important to these small communities. They received some money to build a gym, so we helped design and build the addition for them. The First Nation was involved in a lot of the construction,” Bruyere said.
On the consulting side of the business, Saulteaux provides Asset Condition Reporting System (ACRS) services. This entails inspecting on-reserve, government-funded assets including band offices, roads and bridges, water treatment plants, schools, and vehicles, to name a few. These types of services are always put out for tender, but Saulteaux’s knowledge and expertise in this area certainly sets them apart.
“It goes through the tribal councils, so we always have to bid on it, and we have to be competitive — we don’t just get the contract. We have been successful for years now,” he said. “We go all over the province doing ACRS reports.”
Bruyere said that Saulteaux doesn’t officially have a mandate to assist First Nations, but that has certainly been their mindset when building the business.
“That’s the whole reason we got into this, to help First Nations,” Bruyere said.
Perhaps the best thing about Saulteaux for Bruyere is that it allows him to live and work in his hometown as an engineer. He left Fort Frances to go to school at the University of Manitoba for engineering, and then worked in Winnipeg and Thunder Bay before getting the opportunity to move home.
“I left for school really thinking I’d never be back here — I wouldn’t be able to get a job in my field,” Bruyere said. “Now, I can’t imagine working anywhere else.”
