M
idway up Black-
comb Mountain, a
team from Murphy
Construction Corp. is building
a 23,000-square-foot storage
barn for a new 10-person gon-
dola that is expected to have
the highest capacity in North
America. The development is
part of $66 million in upgrades
taking place at Whistler Black-
comb in 2018 and 2019.
For a logistically challenging
project of this kind—on a ski
hill, with tough weather condi-
tions and a tight time frame—
Graham Murphy,
CEO of the
Pemberton-based construction
company, says using a subtrade
to do the work would have been
the surest solution. Instead, he
invoked the partnership his
business developed with the
Lil'wat Nation, 10 kilometres
east of Pemberton, aimed at
giving its members training,
mentorship and employment in
the construction industry.
About 90 percent of the
Lil'wat crew of 26 hadn't
worked on commercial
concrete until the gondola
project, Murphy estimates.
"Right now they're exceeding
expectations," he says, noting
that without the agreement
they wouldn't have had this
opportunity.
The collaboration, which
won a BC Economic Develop-
ment Award this past sum-
mer, was formalized in 2014,
after Murphy Construction
responded to Lil'wat's request
for proposals. The Nation of
about 1,600 members was look-
ing for opportunities to support
the community and generate
income, says Ernest Armann,
its chief operations o˜cer.
"We have shared interests in
the community and seeing
our families be successful,"
he explains. "The partnership
with Murphy makes sense."
It's also an example of how
business and reconciliation go
together. The Truth and
Reconciliation Committee of
Canada recommends that the
corporate sector build respect-
ful relationships with Indig-
enous peoples, provide them
with access to training and
educational opportunities, and
help communities gain
MURPHY CONSTRUCTION CORP.
Constructive Relationships
From collaboration to reconciliation: the Lil'wat Nation's plan
for economic development
by Jessica Natale Woollard
F I R ST NAT ION S
(
the informer
)
O N
T H E
R ADA R
BOTTOM LINE
Indigenous and
Northern Affairs
Canada describes
own-source
revenue
(OSR) as
"the revenue that
an Aboriginal
government raises
by collecting taxes
and resource
revenues or by
generating business
and other income"
SQUAMISH NATION
Canada's third
top-grossing OSR
First Nation in 2015-16
• $57.3
million in OSR
• $17
million in
government
revenue
• 3.3x
more income
generated from
OSR than from gov-
ernment revenue
SOOKE'S BEECHER
BAY FIRST NATION
The only First Nation
in Canada with OSR in
the red that year, after
taking a loss on real
estate development
-$287,676
CONCRETE
RESULTS
Murphy
Construction is
working with the
Lil'wat Nation
to help build the
Pemberton area
DECEMBER/JANUARY 2019 BCBUSINESS 13
SOURCE: "BENDING THE CURVE,"
THE FRASER INSTITUTE, 2017
