ASTSIF meeting
The planning meeting of the Aboriginal Skills and Training Strategic Investment Fund (ASTSIF) took place in Toronto on Tuesday December 15, 2009. Frontiers Foundation Executive Director Marco Guzman welcomed participants, particularly Brigitte Lewis and Bradley Henry at Project Amik community room. The ED pointed out about the importance of this meeting in the history of our federally chartered charitable organization. Frontiers Foundation is the largest and oldest Aboriginal voluntary service organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of life in disadvantaged communities across Canada and Overseas.
On December 9, 2009 Honorable Diane Finlay, Minister of Human Resources and Skill Development Canada (HRSDC) signed a contract with Frontiers Foundation to provide certifiable housing construction skill training to trainees on three Operation Beaver projects, one in each of Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba.
The Quebec project at Kitcisakik (an Algonquin community south of Val d’Or) will be supervised by FF Regional Field Coordinator Lylas Polson and will involve construction of five new frame homes. The Ontario project is at Collins ( an Ojibwa settlement west of Armstrong) and will produce five new square timber homes under the supervision of FF Field Coordinator Liss Larson. In Manitoba, project site is Garden Hill ( a Cree community on Island Lake) where five new log homes will be built under the supervision of Field Coordinator Brian Monkman.
All projects will reflect the Standing Tree to Standing Home concept pioneered by Frontiers / Beaver years ago in Batchawana Bay, Ontario and South Indian Lake, Manitoba. On each project, local timber is being harvested, skilled and milled by local trainees as directed by our co-ordinators. Our portable Woodmizer mills are making dimension lumber on site; the newest mill an LT40 hydraulic easily capable of lifting square timber to the top rank at the Collins site. Our trainers are drawn from trade training institutions in Winnipeg, Thunder Bay and Temiskaming and will provide classroom and onsite training in framing and interior carpentry, electrical, drywalling, plumbing, foundations, roofing, insulation, finishing and maintenance.
These projects will wind up March 31, 2011.
In attendance were: Laurel Gardiner, Frontiers Acting CEO Manitoba; Brian Monkman, Manitoba Regional Coordinator; Steve MacDougall, Garden Hill Delegate; Veronique Lebuis, Kitcisakik Delegate; Lylas Polson, Quebec Regional Coordinator; Evelyn Roy; Patrick Wilson NFARC Director; Liss Larson, Ontario Regional Coordinator; John Okeese, Collins Delegate; Charles Catto, FF Founding Director; and Marco Guzman, FF Executive Director.