Whitefish (Goodfish) Lake opens mill workshop

The new mill, workshop, operating as Q-Two, has been up and running at the Whitefish Lake First Nation since Jan. 6, and it promises to be successful both as a business venture and in creating employment in Whitefish Lake. Their first order of cedar outdoor furniture, due Feb. 15, was completed last week, and is being exported to the United States.

"What I've seen so far in the guys is exciting," said Greg Sparklingeyes, economic development officer for the band. "Number one: they're proud of what they're producing, and number two: it's being exported, so they could potentially see their product while they're on holiday in the States. They've been talking about that, too. When they saw the packaging going out, with the name of the store on it and everything, it meant a lot to them."

Sparklingeyes said that selling the product for export was important to the workers, because it showed them that they are producing a product that has enough quality to sell anywhere in the world. It has been quite a confidence builder. Q-Two has arranged supply contracts in Canada and Germany, as well, and will operate at capacity until June on contracts already signed.

"The versatility of the equipment was one of the factors in making the purchase of the equipment," explained Sparklingeyes. "Right now, we're working in cedar ? both coastal and interior ? but the mill equipment allows us to move into other markets if this one doesn't provide long-term ongoing employment."

The market for cedar is susceptible to cost increases, based on the supply of wood available. Sparklingeyes said that Q-Two is hedging their bets because, if the cost doubles or triples, markets will look at other, cheaper products.

Q-Two is the second major industry operated by the Whitefish Lake First Nation. They've run a dry-cleaning company since 1975 and diversified into a sewing and garment business in 1980.

"We were contacted some time ago that there was woodworking equipment available from a Nisku company," Sparklingeyes said. "The owner was retiring. We viewed it and decided that we could use it to make employment available to the men of our community."

The next job was to find a facility capable of accommodating the company.

"We checked out a couple of buildings, but finally decided to construct our own purpose-built facility," Sparklingeyes said. "This building is an excellent base out of which to build this business."

"It will be a successful project in time," said Pierre Carrier, owner of Alberta Metal Buildings Sales Inc., who provided the foundations, cement floor, the building itself and the doors. "It is a pre-engineered building that should suit their purposes well.

"We always enjoy doing work out of town, and this was a n enjoyable project," he said. "We were lucky to be able to pour the cement floor before the building arrived. We caught a bit of a window in between the rain in the fall and the cold weather ? about two days. The concrete finishers worked on (the floor) for 24 hours straight."

Gerry Maurice of 712563 Alberta Ltd. Agreed that the job was a successful one.

"It was good," he said. It went well. The parts all fit, everything worked just like it was supposed to. We got the building up very quickly."

Maurice's company was hired to erect the pre-engineered building on this site. The company has now got 10 full-time people on the payroll, and Sparklingeyes expects that there be 25 people on staff within a few months.

On a reserve with unemployment that ranges from 60 per cent to 80 per cent, those kinds of job numbers have to be good news.

The Q-Two facility shows the kind of promise that will serve the people of Whitefish Lake well in the future.