Waskaganish business start-up Boodoosam Safety digs into mining bonanza

Getting a product-distribution business started, especially one serving major mining companies in the Cree Nation, is a difficult project. Waskaganish’s Darren Weistche learned that the hard way. But Weistche’s example proves that a combination of ambition and persistence can get you where you want to go.

A truck driver at Goldcorp’s Éléonore mine near Wemindji, Weistche said he watched as one company after another came up from the south to capitalize on the business opportunities the mine presented.

“I’ve been working up there for two years,” he said. “And I’m watching people come in and out with their businesses, be it air conditioning, HVAC, you name it. There were no Cree companies that really did what I’m doing.”

Weistche distributes industrial safety equipment through his company Boodoosam Safety Inc. The company was the product of a helpful coincidence: as Weistche was working at Éléonore and wondering how he could get in on the business opportunities the mine had opened up, he happened to see an episode of CBC television’s Dragons’ Den featuring northern Ontario firm Great Nipissing Tent (GNT). That company was looking for funding for their barrier-to-go mining safety products – portable and retractable barriers used to indicate and block off dangerous areas.

The show was a success for GNT twice over: first, the Dragons of the program agreed to give the business funding, and second, Weistche gave them a call and offered to distribute their product in Eeyou Istchee.

“But it was a little more complicated than I thought,” Weistche admitted. “Back in September, we went down and had a meeting with the Health and Safety Commissioner, and two guys at the mine. I pulled out my product, but little did I know is that it took a little more than a Barrier-to-Go product to become a supplier for a mine. I was missing about three or four thousand other products.”

Large companies like Goldcorp, it turns out, don’t buy one product from one supplier at a time. Or, as Weistche explained it, “You can’t be selling forks. You have to be selling the whole set. I took that as a lesson. I got caught with my pants down, and I went back and started working on a project.”

If it sounds like Weistche has an uncommon amount of ambition, that’s probably right. He’s been working since the age of 17, when he began as a Hydro linesman. Since then, he’s worked in construction to put himself through school, finishing a general Arts and Sciences Certificate and a pre-engineering program at Ottawa’s Algonquin College, as well a two-year Cree Trades course in mechanics, before finally ending up driving a truck at the mine.

“I was always in the habit of being a college boy,” he said. “I’d always go back to school and learn my book work, then go back to the construction field in the summer to make some money for school or partying or whatnot. I’ve been keeping up a pretty good income, while at the same time maintaining my grades in school and being a pretty avid student.”

So it’s no surprise that fresh from his September defeat, he came back with a new plan. First, he talked with Wemindji’s Tawish Development Corporation, who were already supplying Goldcorp with some products. He came to learn how to get his piece of the mining pie.

“We’re Crees,” he said, “and we’re trying to push our way into this opportunity that’s come about with the development in the area.”

Plus, he widened his net to include the entire safety field, which he had learned from his mining experience was an area of absolute necessity.

“You can’t do anything without safety,” Weistche said. “So I figured I’m going to get the safety products: the rubber gloves, hardhats, boots, you name it.”

Soon after, he partnered with Sudbury safety company Souci Salo Safety as a middleman. However, even with a full catalogue, he was surprised to find that Goldcorp wasn’t warming to his advances as much as he’d like, even as he stressed that Goldcorp had an obligation to privilege a Cree supplier over those from outside the territory.

“I kept pushing, firing off emails saying, ‘Listen, these are your policies and procedures, these are the rules of engagement. You guys have to follow through with my idea because you’re on our territory.’”

Still, Weistche wasn’t getting the deal he hoped for. So he talked with his sister about making a statement on the company’s marketing webpage. Something that wouldn’t be too direct or startling, but a strong message that Goldcorp was dragging its feet getting into a deal with a new company from the Cree territory.

Weistche chuckled, saying, “I woke up the next day and I was pretty startled by what I saw. My sister tore the whole roof down, really put those guys in their place. This post that she put up, usually we only get 100 or 200 views, but in about an hour there were 782 views on that one post.”

In a panic, he took the post down and tried to back away from the hard line he had taken. But shortly thereafter, he was surprised to get a call from a Goldcorp buyer who was ready to deal.

It could have been a coincidence. “I don’t know if he heard about [the post],” Weistche said. “But somebody might have told him, ‘These Crees aren’t f**king around.’”

From one deal came another – an open book account with large-scale construction-firm VCC-Massénor. Now Weistche is working on an accord with Stornaway Diamond Mine. Weistche has had one taste of success and is ready for more.

“It’s a pretty wonderful feeling, to be honest. This is the first business I’ve ever gotten into,” he said. “It’s Goose Break right now, and a bit slow, but despite that, we’re pushing pretty hard, and I’m pretty sure that we’re going to be in a monopoly here.”