ANDREW A. DUFFY
Times Colonist
The First Nations owner of a company shut out of the construction of the $1.45 billion Cowichan District Hospital is blasting the provincial government for paternalistic behaviour and for paying lip service to reconciliation.
Jon Coleman, owner of Jon-co Contracting, a member of the Khowutzun Development Corp., which is owned by Cowichan Tribes, said the province has effectively revoked his inherent right to work within his traditional territory.
In December, Coleman temporarily brought work on the Duncan site to a halt with a blockade because the B.C. Infrastructure Benefits Corp., which provides skilled trades for public projects, would not give the Khowutzun Development Corp. a permit to continue working.
The company, which had been clearing the site, was told it could no longer work there because its workers are not unionized, a requirement of the province’s Community Benefits Agreement for public infrastructure projects.
Coleman ended the blockade on the assurances the Cowichan Tribes and Khowutzun Development Corp. were meeting with Island Health, the Health Ministry, the BCIB and general contractor Ellis Don to find a solution.
Coleman said it has been a month and there has been no movement.
“What is most frustrating is that this project is on the unceded territory of Cowichan Tribes and my company and other First Nation companies are being told that we cannot work in our community and traditional territory,” Coleman wrote in his release. “Instead, work is being granted to businesses outside of the territory and outside of the Cowichan Valley, which is in complete contradiction to the BCIB mandate.”
Coleman said the experience has made it clear the province is only paying lip service to the idea of reconciliation.
“Throughout the process, the provincial government has communicated to Cowichan Tribe members what they can and can’t do on their territory. If this government’s promises about (the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People) meant anything they would have fixed this long ago,” he said.
“I feel like I am being handled paternalistically by the government in the same way I was when I was at Indian Day School as a child. It is shameful and unacceptable this government is showing that the BCIB and the community benefits agreement is nothing short of the new Indian agent and not the reconciliation we were promised.”
In an interview, Coleman said he still hopes there may still be some resolution to the issue.
“I’m hoping, but Christmas has come and gone, too,” he said.
Rory Kulmala, president of the Vancouver Island Construction Association, said he is frustrated with a situation where a local firm is just trying to keep its people employed.
“The CBA model demonstrates how it can exclude not only our Indigenous community businesses, solid businesses, like what Jon has, but it’s demonstrating that it really isn’t allowing true benefit to a community to come together to use their local resources to do a project like this.
“Having a CBA only frustrates an already stressed labour market.”
Coleman, who faces the prospect of laying off people, said he doesn’t understand why the government would create a situation like this, where an industry in a labour and skilled trades shortage actively shuts out local First Nations firms instead of putting them to work.
“I am disgusted with how our community is being treated, Indigenous and non-indigenous,” Coleman said. “We need a better structure that will provide a good working environment for everyone and that will add value to the hospital project.”
The completion date for the project has been pushed back to 2027.
The provincial ministries of Health and Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation did not comment before press time.
