Young Métis entrepreneur to be honoured for work on pipelines
Jolicoeur’s firm has deals with some of the continent’s biggest energy players
CALGARY As a youngster, Jordan Jolicoeur would toss aside his BMX bike and drop to lie down with his ear pressed against the damp earth, hoping to hear the sound of oil flowing below.
He’d been told there was a pipeline down there somewhere, beneath ground in that cleared cutline near his home on the outskirts of Stony Plain.
His eager, boyish quest would be in vain — he’d never succeed in hearing a single, solitary thing arising from those shallow depths. But, come January, he’ll enjoy more success when he hears his own name read out as winner of the Aboriginal Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business’s annual gala in Toronto.
Fittingly, it was Jolicoeur’s work on pipelines — alongside contracts with the country’s main railways and electrical work on housing projects — that led to this honour. When he accepts that award on the evening of Jan. 31, he’ll become the first Métis to do so.
Jolicoeur and his brother, Joel, were raised in an entrepreneurial family. His dad worked full time for TransAlta as an electrician, but on weekends and evenings he’d run his own small business. He called it Carvel Electric.
The brothers followed in their father’s footsteps, both of them successfully becoming journeymen electricians. However, not content with running Carvel as a part-time operation, the pair struck out on their own in 2013, taking over the family business, determined to make it a profitable full-time operation. They started with an old service van and a determination to succeed.
Today, Carvel has contracts with some of the largest energy, pipeline and railway companies in North America along with a fulltime workforce of 10, a half-dozen of whom are Indigenous.
“When you grow up in an entrepreneurial family, you can never feel fulfilled unless you are exploring that avenue yourself. When we took over, it was a time in my life when I was ready to take this on full time. It is what I love to do,” said Jolicoeur, 28, now president and CEO of Carvel.
Among clients is pipeline company Kinder Morgan, whose Trans Mountain expansion to the West Coast is causing controversy. The original pipeline, which was laid in the mid-1950s, was no stranger to Jolicoeur growing up.
“The cutline for the pipeline was the shortcut to my best friend’s house, so essentially I grew up on the pipeline. This was our BMX track and also a place to hunt rabbits and grouse. We also fished in the lake that borders the cutline.”
Nowadays, life is more complex. Pipelines are no longer things of wonder in Canada.
Jolicoeur respects the views of those Indigenous people who oppose the expansion of the Trans Mountain line, but also stresses that many Indigenous people understand the benefits such a project brings, both to individuals and companies.
“I can’t speak for the Métis Nation, but for ourselves. We respect the growth of industry and want to be a part of it, so our people can be employed in energy with good jobs and good futures,” he said.
J.P. Gladu, president of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, understands the difficult position into which politics can put a young Indigenous business person these days, especially those involved in the energy sector.
“Alberta is no stranger to Indigenous business success. On a scale that is hardly seen anywhere else in the country a lot of that success is borne from tradespeople plugging in alongside major energy projects,” said Gladu. “I believe there is a strong, silent majority of communities that support oil and gas and mining, but, again, it is the ways that these projects develop that is so important in ( gathering ) support.
“The end game is when our communities can manage not just poverty, but also our wealth. And the way we will do that is by leveraging our land and our people to build businesses to create that wealth — as people like Jordan are doing,” he said.
When you grow up in an entrepreneurial family, you can never feel fulfilled unless you are exploring that avenue yourself.