Robert Starr, Supercom’s business development manager, said one of the most satisfying aspects of the company’s success in the East-West transmission line project was proving their naysayers wrong.
Its mandate is to maximize First Nation involvement in the East-West project — a 450-kilometre, double-circuit transmission line between the Lakehead Transformer Station, outside Thunder Bay in Shuniah, to the transformer station near Wawa — by supplying skilled labour, negotiating service and supply contracts, and cultivating business partnerships.
But they’ve earned hours towards their apprenticeships, gained valuable experience, and pocketed healthy earnings, he said. “Together, they decided that they were going to work at this collectively,” he said. “And by doing that, ensure that maximum economic benefit was achieved from the project, both from construction and from ownership.”
But Starr and his team at Supercom set out on an ambitious community engagement plan in the summer of 2017. Starr said “they sold the hell out of it,” going door to door in First Nations, and embarking on recruitment drives in cities like Thunder Bay and Sault Ste Marie.