THUNDER BAY – A first of its kind in Canada now sits on Fort William First Nation for employees with the federal government.
The 11th government of Canada coworking office is now operational -- and it's the only one to date that is within Indigenous lands.
“We included the First Nation in the design and development of this site,” said Daniel Galliera, regional manager.
“All of the artwork on the wall is from local Indigenous artists. Even some of the design elements are based off of our meetings with those leaders.
“We have a mandate within the federal public service to meet a certain percentage of procurement nationally.”
The office space, which measures at just over 700 square metres (7,534 square feet), cost approximately $2.75 million to complete at the building on Anemki Drive.
Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP Marcus Powlowski feels more facilities like these might be the future of the workplace for federal employees.
“This presents an opportunity to interact with other federal employees because all of the ministries used to work in isolation of each other and interacting across departments was difficult,” Powlowski added. “People who are working remotely can also come here to work when they need to. This is about changing the nature of the workforce and the workplace.”
Galliera is with the real property branch of the federal government and he added there are six of these offices in Ottawa with other locations in Toronto, Dartmouth and Vancouver.
The Fort William First Nation office can handle 64 employees on a daily basis.
The government's coworking sites are modern workplaces that meet security, workplace health and safety, accessibility and connectivity requirements.
Galliera added it took three years to get this facility open with workers in it.
“Once we had identified the space that we wanted to use, and the design of the space in consultation with the indigenous population, there was some back and forth in terms of how we wanted to get it all organized that way,” he noted. “Our goal was to have it open in December, and we had to push a little bit near the end like we typically do, but we were able to meet that goal.”
There are one hundred employees within Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) that call Thunder Bay home while officials stated Tuesday that overall, the federal government employs over a thousand workers.
