About ECM

Working with Indigenous Communities

A large and growing share of ECM's work is for First Nations and Métis communities in Saskatchewan: daycares, schools, health centres and community buildings, often a long way from the nearest city.

Acknowledgement

ECM is based on Treaty 6 Territory and the Homeland of the Métis, and builds across Treaty territories throughout Saskatchewan. [tk: Erick to approve the wording]

The work

Buildings for First Nations and Métis communities.

- General Contracting
- Institutional
- In progress
James Smith Daycare & Headstart
James Smith Cree Nation, SK · 2026
A new daycare and Head Start building for James Smith Cree Nation, with an Elder and culture room, a shared kitchen and an outdoor play area.
Client
James Smith Cree Nation
- General Contracting
- Institutional
Muskoday School Addition
Muskoday First Nation, SK
An addition to the community's school.
- General Contracting
- Institutional
Sturgeon Lake Child & Family Services
Regina, SK
A learning centre [tk name and status].
- Construction Management
- Institutional
First Nations Traditional Campus
St. Louis, SK · 2024
New services, cabins, a shower house, a kitchen and a sweat lodge for a First Nations traditional campus on the bank of the South Saskatchewan River, north of St. Louis, delivered as construction manager.
- Construction Management
- Commercial
Ma Faamii Service Centres
Beauval, North Battleford and Yorkton, SK · 2024 to 2026
Three identical Ma Faamii service centres for Métis Nation-Saskatchewan in Beauval, North Battleford and Yorkton, each about 5,500 sq ft, with client support offices, staff offices and a community room with a kitchen.
Client
Métis Nation-Saskatchewan

How ECM works

Jobs, local business and respect for how a community works.

ECM's approach follows the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Call to Action 92, which asks business to build respectful relationships with Indigenous peoples, give Indigenous people equitable access to jobs, training and education, and educate its own people. In practice, on ECM's projects:

Hiring from the community
About half of ECM's site workforce is Indigenous [tk: how counted]. On First Nations projects, ECM hires from the community first [tk], and works with the Nation's employment office or band administration to find people [tk].
Training that carries on after the project
ECM takes on apprentices and helps community members work toward trade tickets [tk], so the skills stay in the community after the building is finished.
Local and Indigenous-owned businesses
ECM looks first to band-owned and local businesses for subcontracts, equipment, materials and accommodation [tk], and to Métis suppliers on Métis projects [tk].
One point of contact, and a community that knows what's happening
Each project has one ECM contact for the Nation's leadership and staff [tk], and ECM keeps the community informed as the project goes, through regular meetings and updates [tk].
Respect for culture and protocol
ECM builds the spaces that matter to the community, from Elder and culture rooms to a sweat lodge, and plans the work around ceremonies, community events and the requests of Elders [tk].
Learning, for ECM's own people
ECM's managers and site staff take training in the history of Indigenous peoples in Canada, including residential schools, Treaties and Indigenous rights, and in working respectfully on a community's land [tk].

Truth and reconciliation

What reconciliation means on a job site.

Reconciliation is work, not a statement.

For a builder, it means paying fair wages to people from the community the building is for, leaving behind skills and businesses that last longer than the project, and treating the community as a partner in its own building, not a location on a drawing.

ECM won’t pretend it is easy. Keeping a community crew together over a long project takes effort from everyone, and ECM would rather say that plainly than promise more than it can deliver. What it does promise is to hire locally, train the people it hires, deal straight with the Nation’s leadership, and finish the building it was trusted with.

References from First Nations clients are available on request [tk].