First Nation hopeful about defence firm deal
Chief says manufacturing contract is just a ‘first step’ in relationship
REGINA The chief of Pasqua First Nation has no qualms that a bandowned business is making components for one of the world’s largest defence companies, even if the finished product might end up in Saudi Arabia.
Chief Todd Peigan says his priority is to provide jobs for his people.
Pro Metal Industries, a fabrication plant just north of Regina, has secured a roughly $1-million contract with a Canadian subsidiary of military and aerospace multinational General Dynamics to make parts for Light Armoured Vehicles (LAVS).
Peigan said it’s just a “first step” in what he hopes will be a long relationship with the firm and a deeper toehold in military contracting. He said that could lead to expansion of the workforce at Pro Metal, which the band bought in 2015.
Roughly half of the few dozen employees who work at Pro Metal are Indigenous.
“Indigenous Peoples have a long history of working shoulder-to-shoulder with the Canadian Armed Forces, dating all the way back to the First World War,” Peigan was quoted as saying in a news release. “It is encouraging to see Indigenous participation in the defence sector expanding beyond uniformed service. This work represents an important step in that evolving relationship, and will have a real impact on the local economy.”
Doug Wilson-hodge, spokesman for General Dynamics Land Systems-canada (GDLS-C), confirmed that the contract is the first the subsidiary has inked with a 100-per-cent First Nation-owned business.
“We’ve begun the process of identifying and including Indigenous suppliers into our supply chain, and this is the first supplier that we’ve identified,” he said.
“It’s something that we certainly encourage.”
No one involved in the deal was able to provide any clarity regarding which LAVS the components will end up in, or where those vehicles will go. GDLS-C has a $15-billion contract to provide LAVS to Saudi Arabia, a country notorious for human rights abuses. The deal has since been scaled back, but 742 LAV-6S were still slated for delivery as of 2017.
Asked whether the Pro Metal contract has any connection to the Saudi deal, Wilson-hodge would only say that the components are “going to ongoing program work.”
Critics have raised concerns that Canadian-made LAVS could be used to crack down on dissidents or religious minorities if unrest strikes the repressive kingdom.
The Liberal government moved to review the deal, but the company has warned that cancelling it would mean billions in penalties and a heavy toll in lost jobs.
Peigan also spoke out against talk of pulling out, saying it will mean economic pain for subcontractors across the nation. He indicated that it could have a direct impact on the work at Pro Metal.
“If that’s cancelled, then General Dynamics has to tell Pro Metal, ‘Sorry your contract is cancelled,’” he said. “So then those individuals I referred to about hiring, we can’t hire anymore.’”
But he said he has no idea what the components made at the plant will actually be used for.
“They may send us specs to build bumpers, but we don’t know that,” he said.
Work on the GDLS-C contract could begin as early as this week, according to Pro Metal’s general manager, Bob Dumur. He said the plant is currently finishing up work for a smaller defence contractor.
After that, the facility’s plasma cutter and water jet will be free to work on the LAV components.
The initial contract with GDLS-C is for 27 different kinds of components amounting to 5,500 individual parts. Dumur hopes the company will come back for more. He said defence contracts provide stable income for the band and steady employment for its members.
“This gives us an opportunity to build the same parts for many years to come,” he said.
But he couldn’t speak to the ultimate destination of the vehicles any more than Peigan or Wilson-hodge.
“That’s an argument we don’t even get involved in,” he said. “We’re just here to make parts, wherever it goes.”
Asked if he has any concern about what the LAVS will be used for, he put it simply: “That’s way above my pay grade.” Like Peigan, he’s more concerned about what the contract can do for the business, the band and the employees working under him.
“What we’re doing is providing a more diverse way for the band to actually employ their band members,” Dumur said.
Peigan brushed off any concerns about Saudi dissidents by pointing to the struggles his own people have faced at the hands of the federal government.
“Weapons of disease, weapons of federal policy, we overcame,” he said. “They tried to break us, but we’re still here. And me, I have to provide a service, programs and services, to the people that elect me.”