An Indigenous business could benefit from FortisBC gas line upgrades in the East Kootenay region.

Nupqu Resource Limited Partnership, a natural resource management consulting and contracting business owned by the communities of the Ktunaxa Nation, has recently cleared 200 kilometres of the gas line site for the FortisBC gas line project.

It comes in conjunction with a tertiary Ktunaxa partner called Kettle River Contracting.

“This is a great example of how we’re working with companies within the Ktunaxa network to grow the scope of services we can offer,” said Kevin Wilson, Nupqu business development manager in a recent press release. “Nupqu is owned by the Indigenous communities that make up the Ktunaxa Nation, and our mandate is to support those communities wherever we can.

“In the big picture, we see a future for our company as a quarterback, a prime contractor, tapping into our network and putting a team together to get a job done.”

The FortisBC Inland Gas Upgrades project is expected to upgrade 29 sections of natural gas lines throughout four regions of B.C., including the North, the Thompson-Okanagan, the Cariboo, as well as in the East and West Kootenay over the coming years. The goal is to improve safety and reliability of operations, while ensuring there is proactive maintenance on new equipment.

According to FortisBC, the Nupqu project will employ 65 people from the Ktunaxa communities to complete roles in forestry, environmental, and safety management work this season. It is the first of several upcoming partnerships held between FortisBC and Nupqu Development Corporation this year.

“We first hired Nupqu to do some clearing work for us on a small project and continued to work with them on specific jobs over the span of 10 years,” Blair Weston, FortisBC Indigenous relations manager said in a recent press release. “They got to a place, and now have the capacity, where they are able to take on large-scale project work with us.”

To learn more about FortisBC’s Inland Gas Upgrades project, please visit http://talkingenergy.ca/inlandgasupgrades