Waskaganish residents know the band is deeply in debt. But what caused it?
One problem is the same faced by many First Nations: not enough money to cover all the needs of a growing population.
But two building experts who worked in Waskaganish for years say a lot of the band’s estimated $8-million debt is its own fault. They said major construction projects have repeatedly gone way over-budget due to a problem of disorganization at the band.
“The band has a lot of internal problems,” said one of the construction consultants, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“They do not have the supervision. They don’t have good organization. There doesn’t really appear to be a spirit of cooperation,” said the consultant, who’s been active in the building industry for three decades.
“It has to do with leadership. When you know something about construction, you’ll understand that 90 per cent of the problems have to do with the supervisors.”
He said band employees who have new ideas or show initiative are discouraged.
“It seems like the whole idea of making changes is very difficult. Everybody is sort of for the status quo at whatever level. It seems that whatever intimates a change brings fear, rather than an openness to dialogue.”
John Lorenzini, the band’s head engineer and project manager for over 12 years, agreed that most major capital-works projects in the community have gone overbudget. The reason? Organizational problems, he said.
Lorenzini, who quit the band last year and lives in Sudbury, denied that there were any budget overruns or other problems on any projects he himself supervised, which were mostly related to housing.
But he said capital-works projects, like the recently inaugurated gathering centre, were a different story. The centre, for example, was “way over-budget” and past schedule, Lorenzini said.
Chief Billy Diamond, band treasurer Malcolm Moses and Michel Lalonde, a project manager on some local capital-works projects, didn’t return our calls.
