A Vancouver Island company is exploring an untapped market by pursuing deals with First Nations, at the same time hoping a German-made machine can help bring some independence to remote aboriginal communities across Western Canada.
Reclaimasphalt.com, a subsidiary of Nanaimo-based contractor Royal Paving Ltd., is selling Bagela portable asphalt recyclers. The company has already completed contracts with the Snuneymuxw, Quw’utsun’, Stz’uminus and ’Namgis First Nations and is hoping the product catches on in areas where getting roads repaved by conventional industrial paving equipment is costly and inconvenient.
Patti Reilly, marketing manager for Reclaimasphalt.com, said it is targeting First Nations communities for a number of reasons.
“Up in the north they can’t even get paving contractors to come up there and pave a driveway for them because they’re always working on these big highway projects,” Reilly said. “So this allows some independence in remote communities that can’t get paving.”
A machine can be brought in to tear up asphalt on a worn-down parking lot, then hot-mix the recycled asphalt, load the paver and repave the entire lot. The machine can be towed by a pick-up truck, mounted on a flatbed and operated independently by someone who has been trained to use the equipment.
Reilly said the environmental factor is also key.
“It’s something where you’re rerouting stuff that goes to the landfill right now,” she added. “You don’t need any new asphalt for this at all, and it’s giving bands some independence [with] their own infrastructure needs. They can pave where they want, when they want and do something for the environment at the same time. And we’re also looking at it as a bit of a small-business setup for the kids.”
Reilly said they’ve had discussions with the Sho’:wech Development Corp. and are planning a presentation to the Penticton Indian Band sometime in June, as band leadership has expressed an interest in the machines after viewing one at a trade show. Band administrator Greg Gabriel said they’re excited about the potential of the machines.
“We have to contract out every year because we have so many of our own kilometres of band roadways,” Gabriel said. “In fact they just finished this week patching and paving sections of our roadway network. So having to always look at parking lots, driveways, new housing developments, it’s certainly something that we’re going to look at for that reason.”
Gabriel added it might be possible for the band to create jobs by setting up its own paving department with workers trained to operate the machinery.
“We would even extend our operations and offers to other First Nations in the area that are only a half-hour away from our community.”
A recent Statistics Canada report noted that since the global financial crisis of 2008-09, unemployment for First Nations has risen.
“The gap widened following the downturn, as aboriginal people aged 15 and older (excluding those living on reserves or in the territories) experienced sharper declines in employment rates than non-aboriginal people did,” the report said.
In 2009, the average employment rate for aboriginal people was 57%, compared with 61.8% for non-aboriginal people. That gap in employment of 4.8 percentage points had climbed from 3.5 percentage points in 2008. At the same time the unemployment rate rose sharply for aboriginal people to 13.9% from 10.4% in 2008. The report also noted the sharpest rise in First Nations unemployment was youth aged 15 to 24.
Reilly said the idea of engaging First Nations communities was spurred by recent statements by aboriginal leadership about the lack of job prospects.
“What happened was my sales manager was listening to a [Canadian Broadcasting Corp.] show with the chief from Haida Gwaii,” she said. “She said, ‘I wish there was something that we could train these kids, a trade so they can start their own small business.’ And we thought this is perfect because [the machines are] so easy to operate.”
