Chee-Bee Construction may lose its monopoly over housing contracts in Chisasibi after complaints of overcharging.
The Chisasibi band was charged nearly $1.1 million by its own construction company to build foundations for 18 new homes in the community. That works out to $60,000 per unit.
Questions have arisen because similar foundations in Waskaganish reportedly cost only $20-25,000 each. For the entire contract, that means a difference of $600-700,000 between the two communities.
Christopher Napash, director-general of the Chisasibi band, said he tried to get an explanation for the apparently high prices, but couldn’t get one. He said the band is now considering going to outside bids for future housing projects.
“I’m sure there are other ways of doing it. We could call a company in the south and get a contract to use local manpower,” he said.
“I don’t really want to put down Chee-Bee at the moment. Chee-Bee is one of our major employers in this community. But you also have to look at the other side of the story, such as how many houses we can build.”
Napash said the band has to look at its costs because of the shortage of funds for housing projects. The community has a waiting list of 138 for new homes. “I’m sure everyone would agree with me that there is a housing crisis in this community and we have to talk about it,” he said.
“We have nothing to hide,” responded Chee-Bee president George Pachanos, who said the foundations cost more because construction started in late October and continued through the winter.
“We warned them they would probably be looking at winter conditions, which means extra labour costs, heating, winter protection, snow removal. We asked if they would consider putting it off,” Pachanos said. “Our concern is they were spending our money. I’m also a member of the band.”
He said winter conditions added an extra $5-10,000 to the cost of each foundation. He suggested that Waskaganish may also have paid less because in that community the band itself did the work, not a band-owned corporation. Chee-Bee has its own separate administrative overhead that it has to factor into the cost.
But does this explain why Chisasibi paid more than two times more than Waskaganish? Napash said he is still waiting for answers. “To tell you the truth, I really don’t know. As far as I know, we don’t have the full story.”
The foundations will function as basements for trailer homes which were bought by Chisasibi and were formerly used by hydro workers at LA-1. The trailers cost Chisasibi $15,000 apiece. Work on the foundations is almost finished and the new units have already been distributed to band members. The homes will be privately owned.
Chee-Bee employs nine to 10 people permanently and in a good year 80 to 120 on a seasonal basis.
