New construction projects underway in Fort Severn

A new storage warehouse and a new police detachment are currently being built in Fort Severn First Nation.
Both structures are scheduled for completion by March.
Construction for the new $350,000 storage warehouse began at the end of September. The construction created several jobs in the community as the band hired four youth to help with the pouring of the concrete for the foundation of the building. Once completed, there will also be a community member working full-time at the warehouse doing inventory and maintenance.
Fort Severn band manager George Kakekaspan said the reason the chief and council decided to build a new warehouse was to get the community organized.
“We needed to centralize all the small building supplies,” Kakekaspan said.
Currently supplies are stored in 10 trailers that are spread out across the community. Most of these supplies include new windows, doors and plumbing hardware.
“Things get lost and broken,” he said. “Sometimes we order in supplies that we already have but since we have no centralized inventory system in place, we don’t realize this until after an order is placed.”
That can delay projects and waste money, he said.
“We’re trying to control our inventory with the new warehouse,” Kakekaspan said.
The warehouse will also have an 18-square-metre chain link fence in the back where plywood and other large building supplies will be stored.
Kakekaspan said fall construction is unusual for the community but the timing of the Casino Rama funds, which were needed to pay for the construction, made it possible. With the barge coming in at the end of September, with all the building supplies onboard, it was impossible to begin construction during the summer months, he said.
The shell of the building will be completed by Christmas, with the interior to be finished by March.
A permanent hydro line won’t be ready until the spring, but a temporary supply will be running the building’s electricity until then.
Construction also began on a new Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service (NAPS) building in early October. The $2.3-million building will be fully operational by March.
This building will be replacing the old police detachment, which burnt down in 2008. Since then, the three full-time NAPS officers currently working in Fort Severn have been operating out of rooms in the band hotel, using one room as both an office and holding station.
Chief Matthew Kakekaspan said the new building will appeal to NAPS officers who might be deterred from coming to work in Fort Severn due to the lack of a building.
The chief said because of the lack of a building, at times it was hard to keep officers working in the community.
“Sometimes we didn’t even have anybody working,” he said.
The new police station was supposed to start construction last spring but since the winter road season was so short the community wasn’t able to get the supplies needed for construction until the barge came in.
The police station will be a big building at 16 square metres with hopes of helping to retain officers in the community.
But, according to Kakekaspan officers will still be living out of the band’s hotel.