Wet'suwet'en experience with heavy machinery on pipeline project will pay off years from now

“If you don’t have the resumé that says you have three years running Cats and you go for a job as a Cat operator people look and say they don’t want to train you. Here we have an opportunity to train up to 100 people who are going to be able to work anywhere.

- Troy Young, General Manager, Kyah Resources

For Troy Young, a Wet’suwet’en member and GM of Kyah Resources, the greatest benefit of training dozens of Wet’suwet’en workers as heavy equipment operators for the Coastal GasLink pipeline will be felt in a decade as those workers are spread out across B.C.

Kyah Resources is a joint venture between Young’s private company and the Witset First Nation — one of the five Wet’suwet’en bands that have signed access and benefits agreements with Coastal GasLink.

Young expects his workers to take around three years to complete the project, essentially cutting a 30- to 50-metre wide swath through the forest, at which point they will meet up with Haisla Nation work crews cutting east from Kitimat.