First Nation celebrates grand opening of welding shop

Sparks will fly in Sandy Bay Ojibway First Nation.

The First Nation will celebrate the grand opening of a welding shop this afternoon. Community leaders say the shop will foster skills, create trade labour in the area and contribute to economic growth.

The 3,200-square-foot shop includes 14 welding booths, MIG welders, a plasma cutting table, two band saws and a milling machine. The shop is located near Isaac Beaulieu Memorial, the community’s Kindergarten to Grade 12 school, which will allow high school students to use the facility.

It’s a dream come true for Chief Trevor Prince, who started planning the shop when he was elected in 2020.

“One of my goals was to bring trades to our high school,” he said. “I’m excited to show everybody what we’ve done.”

Prince added that he and his colleagues are pursuing certification with the CWB Group (previously known as the Canadian Welding Bureau), an industry-supported organization that provides services to the welding industry.

“I want to see more First Nations people getting into the trades and be certified to work in these trades,” Prince said.

Born and raised in Sandy Bay, the 42-year-old knows firsthand how rewarding a career in the trades can be. His father introduced him to fixing cars at an early age, so Prince has fond memories of changing brake pads and doing oil changes when he was young.

Prince started working in the automobile industry when he was 19. He worked at a series of dealerships in Manitoba and Alberta repairing car frames before moving back to Sandy Bay when the pandemic started.

“I enjoyed all of it,” Prince said of working in the trades. “I’ve always tried to pass the message on to the youth: pick something you have a passion for and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”

For Prince, it’s important that youth learn about the trades in their own community.

“If you’re not exposed to the trades in high school, when you think you want to be a mechanic you go to school and you find out while you’re at school, ‘This is not for me,’” he said. “To me that’s wasted time, wasted money. If we had these trades while they’re at home, maybe they could develop that passion (here).”

The welding shop is great news according to Maria Pacella, executive director of Skills Canada Manitoba, a non-profit that promotes skilled trades and technology careers as a first choice career option for youth in the keystone province.

“With the increased demand in skilled trade careers, the Sandy Bay welding program is a wonderful opportunity to empower Manitoba’s youth to embrace skilled trades and technologies,” Pacella said in an email. “The more partners we have in creating awareness and opportunities, the more significant strides we can make.”

Sandy Bay’s education director is currently looking for a Red Seal welder with teaching certification to lead the program at the school.

Once the program is up and running, Prince wants to bring other trades — including plumbing, electrical, cosmetology and culinary arts — to the school.

The welding shop has potential beyond the high school, according to councillor Randal Roulette. Once instructors are in place, adults in the community will have the opportunity to learn welding, too.

“I’m looking at it as a catalyst to kick off much more,” Roulette said. “Having skilled people is key to growing a community.”

Sandy Bay is 178 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg near Lake Manitoba. It has a population of 2,598, according to the 2021 census.

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