Lake Babine Nation breaks ground on forestry campus

Lake Babine Nation Chief Wilf Adam says the centre will help young people learn about forestry and other areas. Elders will share their knowledge along with the instructors.

“We’re going to do a facility that will teach the young people about forestry and other related matters throughout their lives,” Adam said. “It will be a training centre for our young people, and through the old people, there will be teachers too.”

Adam said the nation now plays a much bigger role in managing its own territory.

“When we started in our forestry program, we were less than one per cent involved. Now we’re at least up to 65 percent of our entire territory,” he said. “We need the people in place to look after the forestry, and we need training for our people to do the proper work.”

Adam said it is very important to keep trained workers in the community.

“The people that we train, they’re going to stay with us. We got to make sure that we don’t train people and then they go off elsewhere,” he said. “That has happened in the past. We trained a lot of people, and they moved on.”

Monty Palmantier, who manages capacity development at Lake Babine Nation Forestry Services LP, said the campus meets a long-standing need.

“Having a facility for education and training, and particularly post-secondary, it’s filling a need that is long outstanding,” Palmantier said.

Palmantier said Lake Babine Nation Forestry grew from just two or three employees in 2016 to almost 40 today. He said they need a steady stream of Lake Babine Nation citizens to fill future jobs.

“Those positions do need to be filled by Lake Babine Nation citizens. This is where education and training really do play a crucial role in the short and the long-term growth of Lake Babine Nation Forestry,” he said.

Palmantier said the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology has been their main partner for accredited programs. He also said the campus will join a provincial network of over 40 First Nation education institutes through the Indigenous Adult and Higher Learning Association.

He said students do better when they are trained in their own community instead of being sent away.

“When we deliver training in community, we have far more success. The successes that we witness, that we enjoy, are tenfold over what we witness when we send our students out to the institutions,” Palmantier said.

Palmantier described the campus as a stepping stone. It is a place where students can earn certificates and diplomas before moving on to bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral programs elsewhere.

The Lake Babine Nation is the largest First Nation in northern British Columbia.

by Dave Branco

Lake Babine Nation breaks ground on forestry campus

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