I manage housing builds on reserves all across Canada. DO you know what happens? You ship your materials in on the winter road (or barge in the spring depending on the community) over the next month or so and when you show up to start building in the spring you learn that renting space in the Bands secure compound doesn't actually gain you any security and anything of value has been stolen.... by the very people who would have been the beneficiary of those new or renovated homes. Then when you go the Chief & Council to try and get some help in recovering your materials, they either ignore you or hand you an invoice for storing your materials...which you no longer have. I can’t build my own secure compound because that’s insulting to the people of the community, why wouldn’t I trust them?
I can’t begin to tell you how many times my crews have shown up on site to start a project only to find out we’ve had so much stolen you just can’t execute the project. Then you’re left with the headache of an unfulfilled contract with the Band. That’s always fun.
Housing isn’t even the worst, gas projects are the worst. Why the fuck would you steal my pipe? There's 1 gas station in town and you just put it out of business, congratulations asshole. What could you possibly be doing with it other than using it to hold up your pup tent? What on earth do you need with that sump? That’s not going in your crawl space. I once had 2 FIVE THOUSAND POUND bags of concrete grow legs and walk off on me…. Turns out the band was building a hockey arena that year. Wonder where my concrete wandered off to...
That’s what happens to at least some of the billions of dollars that are supposed to be used for housing. I’ve done work in over 70 communities at this point. If they’re in the provinces, I’m expecting to have my materials rifled through and a portion of them stolen. The territories seem
All of this + fire. Kids on reserve absolutely love burning buildings down. When Sheila North Wilson claims reserves don’t have adequate fire equipment, I really want a reporter to ask her if that’s because they lit the fire truck on fire. Shamattawa and Paungassi have burned there's IIRC.