Building the Cree way
It’s always bothered me when I’ve seen our people in the construction industry make progress in building their own communities only for outside governing bodies to find ways to discourage Cree workers and contractors by imposing new rules on who can build what and what they need to build.
Thirty years ago, my community put up 75 family homes in one year. These houses were built by Cree hands, led by Cree foremen, managed by Cree leaders. Those houses still stand today alongside the new houses that were built under the new government licenses that were gradually imposed on us. These new regulations required a company to submit their bids under government laws: the contractor is required to have a specific license to work, and the contractor must have a field “leader” recognized by this governing body. Nowadays, a Cree worker is only allowed to take direction from these “recognized” field and project leaders and most times our workers can only do minimal work in “specialized contracts.”
This is a never-ending cycle of discouraging our people. One by one, our Cree workforce and companies are gaining these required accreditations, licenses, and so on. But I’m sure there will be new rules and requirements that will again try to limit Cree roles on the worksite or office. Discouragement. Outsiders want to divert profits away from our communities into their own pockets. This disrupts the growth of our economy.
Okay, now enough with “hatin’ the system”! My solution? If this government can impose laws, then we should be allowed to impose our own regulations! Create our own governing body that will create policies and requirements that supports the progress of our workers in our Cree communities. Have this new governing body impose similar laws that the Commission de la construction du Quebec and the Régie du bâtiment du Québec currently have for contractors to build in our territory. Recognize all hours recorded under the previous body, so that we don’t have to start afresh.
How many of our people have achieved the required hours to reach that moment when you can write an exam loosely translated from the “official” language? This exam does not help the Cree worker. I find it very hard to believe that only a handful of our tradesmen are smart enough to get this. I’ve seen these individuals work and they are intelligent, on-the-spot problem solvers and leaders. It’s not hard to create our own governing body, most laws and policies are taken from existing laws anyways. We just write it so it reflects us. Is this lazy work? No, let’s just say they wrote it for us to use when we would be ready to govern ourselves. Oh wait, we are there now! Now we may proceed.
This is in no way racially motivated but more focused on the governments that have given us these laws to follow on our land. We are in a time where we will see so much change. How we move forward is now under our control. This point is minor compared to many of the changes we will be part of, yet this empowerment will gain us the recognition and licensing we need to continue building our nation with our own hands.
I sure would like to see a band administrative building that resembles more of a Cree government. Mind you, some of our communities have already started looking more Cree. We must continue to break free from the laws we were “taught” to obey and continue rebuilding our nation one home at a time with the laws that reflect Cree life.