Higher purpose: joint-venture poised to tackle infrastructure, labour shortages.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: THUNDER BAY

Don Wing looks upon Wasaya Dowland Contracting as having a transformational effect in giving Aboriginal people the skills and confidence to tackle a looming labour shortage in the North.

With more than a dozen potential new mines poised to start development within five years, the vice-president of Dowland's Ontario division calls the new joint venture between the Wasaya Group of companies and Dowland a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the way things are done."

"We're going to take that venture, we're going to make it successful, and we're going to change people's lives."

Dowland Contracting appeared on the Thunder Bay scene last year when the Wasaya Group introduced the Northwest Territories-based contractor as a strategic development partner.

With 51 per cent of the 'limited partnership owned by Wasaya, the aim is to position itself to meet the infrastructure challenges in remote First Nation communities as resource development takes hold.

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The venture is viewed as a stepping stone to train Aboriginal people in the skills required to build mines, power lines, arenas, hospitals, hotels and schools.

"When you look at what's gone on over the last 50 years in northwestern Ontario, the First Nations have never really had a partner that gives them the capacity to participate," said Wing.

Wing said it was the marriage of two business organizations with a social conscience that lured him back into the construction business after a decade-long absence.

"One of the reasons I came back was the good that this relationship will do."

Wing came from a family-owned contracting business that worked extensively in the northwest and in First Nations communities as far north as Hudson Bay. "I have a love for working with First Nations. I've been out of the business for 12 or 13 years and nothing has changed up there, and it needs to change.

"When you go into these communities the same needs are there; housing, water, jobs."

In October, Dowland signed an agreement with PTH China, an IS09001 certified company from Shaoxing, China, specializing in manufacturing pre-engineered buildings, including the constrution and installation of steel-framed buildings.

The company aims to bring this type of housing to the Far North communities.

Working on that project is Ray Williamson, a well-known and award-winning Thunder Bay developer, who joined Wing at Dowland.

"Don has a solid reputation as a leader in the community and I'm proud to be a...