Partnerships, Joint Ventures & Business Alliances
IPAC favours relationships that deliver long-term, meaningful results - for our partners, clients, communities, ourselves and the people and organizations we work alongside. We seek to collaborate on projects in a way that demonstrates our underlying values. This is our business strategy. We create high-functioning teams of Indigenous members and/or organizations, joint venture partners, business alliances, and associates that deliver exceptional results and maximum value. We include business entities, people, and capacity that not only gets the job done, but adds value.
IPAC as Indigenous Partner and Advocate
IPAC is a majority Indigenous-owned company (i.e. certified through the Canadian Council for Indigenous Business) but DOES NOT assert Indigenous rights and/or title on any lands. We acknowledge, respect, and honour the rights and title of those Indigenous communities and First Nations on whose traditional territory the projects occur. We acknowledge that “set aside” contracts are for those specific First Nations communities, companies, members, and/or their designates. Having the opportunity to work with these First Nations is acknowledged and appreciated. Additionally and alternatively, we stand ready and willing to assist project proponents as they may struggle to roll out meaningful opportunities for Indigenous contracting where applicable capacity is limited. Our suite of services is sufficiently broad in scope and scale as to fit well into virtually any resource-based project, especially during “early works” planning, assessment, and construction. We are receptive to forming new Indigenous partnerships and/or joint ventures, either at the behest of a First Nation and/or project proponent. We favour long-term partnerships over short-term joint ventures, but we are always keen to build local, Indigenous capacity.
Indigenous Partners
IPAC has maintained operating Indigenous partnerships since the mid 1990’s. Some partnerships lasted more than 20 years. Some have persisted and remain active to meet changing client needs or ongoing growth opportunities. Our partnerships leverage IPAC’s core competencies, capabilities and resources, as well as administration and finances. We operate on the basis of mutual respect, open communication, transparency, and our belief and resolve that Indigenous persons and communities deserve a genuine and meaningful role in the projects proposed on their traditional lands.
Skowtum Services Ltd.
A majority First Nations-owned partnership with Keith Matthew - a Simpcw First Nation member. Skowtum operates in Secwépemc traditional territories, delivering civil survey, forestry, road design, and a range of other services. Skowtum facilitates Indigenous capacity building and offers career pathways for First Nations community members. This partnership has been in place for over 10 years, with past large-scale works on the TransMountain Expansion, as well as numerous smaller projects.
MaMeet Services Ltd.
A majority First Nations-owned partnership with Jessica Joe - a Lower Nicola Indian Band (“LNIB”) member. MaMeet pursues opportunities throughout LNIB territory, and offers meaningful career development and long-term employment for LNIB community members. This partnership has been operational for more than 10 years, with past works on significant projects such as the TransMountain Expansion, as well as ongoing works on pipeline integrity projects (TMX, Enbridge), Teck’s Highland Valley Copper mine, and Capstone’s wind farm projects at Mount Mabel and Highland Valley. A significant value of work was also done on the Highway #8 reconstruction project.
Joint Ventures
IPAC participates in joint ventures that allow First Nations communities, companies, and members to participate meaningfully in contracting opportunities that they may not otherwise have the resources, staff, skills, and/or finances to prepare for and deliver. Impediments like non-negotiable insurance requirements, safety certification, professional right-to-practice under the Professional Governance Act, related business experience and qualifications, and others, often impose barriers to entry for new Indigenous businesses responding to “contracting opportunities”. Well-intentioned project proponents often struggle as well to pre-qualify new First Nations businesses as many requisites are simply not negotiable. IPAC can assist both the new business and the project proponents to ”get up and running” by leveraging its core competencies, capabilities, resources and more to satisfy pre-qualification and contract requirements, thereby assisting options for meaningful business activity. Our scope and scale of services provide a broad spectrum of engagement options that truly add value.
Highbar Indian Band
We are proud and privileged to currently work under a joint venture with the Highbar Indian Band (“HIB”). The focus of the joint venture is to provide civil survey and other consulting services that facilitate Highbar Indian Band’s participation on projects within their traditional lands; most notably, but not limited to, Enbridge’s Sunrise Expansion Project. We are grateful and honoured for the trust HIB has shown toward IPAC. It is our desire to advance this joint venture toward a long-term partnership through a meaningful flow of benefits and future opportunities. Ultimately, as with all joint ventures, realizing that goal is dependent upon our collective ability to secure meaningful contracting opportunities, as well as affirmation from HIB.
Business Alliances
IPAC works with a network of established business alliances and associates: surveying professionals, environmental consultants, geotechnical and engineering firms, construction subcontractors, and more. We draw upon these alliances relatively often, as they do from us, to bolster the scope and scale of our service(s). These alliances are mutually beneficial. Our combined forces add depth and capacity, and allows us to tackle complex resource and infrastructure projects. The added capacity and service diversity yields procurement and administrative efficiencies for customer organizations.
Global Raymac Surveying and Engineering Ltd. (GRS)
A business alliance affording expanded surveying capabilities, engineering, and project delivery. This mutually beneficial alliance delivers legal land survey services provided exclusively by Global Raymac Surveying and Engineering - BC Land Surveying (“BCLS”) and Canadian Land Surveying (“CLS”). IPAC delivers incremental surveying resources and seasoned Indigenous partnerships. This alliance is highly valued.
BCLS/CLS Survey Professionals
Professional survey capacity in support of the legal land survey, Canada Lands Survey, and other complex project survey requirements undertaken and overseen by Global Raymac Surveying and Engineering Ltd.. GRS maintains full oversight and administrative lead for all legal land surveying assignments.
Associated Entities
IPAC has an ongoing business relationship/association with two external resource-based operating companies; specifically, Integrated Fibre Ltd. and Sukunka Lime Resources Inc.. Participation in these external operations provides unique experience and insight with respect to the real-world permitting challenges that exist in BC.
Integrated Fibre Ltd.
An associated corporation that holds and operates a 20-year, non-replaceable forest licence (“NRFL”) targeting old-growth cedar-hemlock stands in the Kamloops Timber Supply Area. This operation leverages IPAC’s tenure management, timber harvesting, log marketing, and silviculture operations expertise. The entity provides an ongoing imperative to engage with government, First Nations, forest licensees and other stakeholders. IPAC’s team is sensitized to the real-world challenges of project planning, development, referral, and permitting for any projects in BC that have a forestry, roads, and/or referral component.
Sukunka Lime Resources Inc.
An associated corporation that operates a limestone quarry and minerals operation in northeast BC. Accordingly, the operation is permitted under both the Mines Act and the Land Act. The mining and/or quarrying operations are available to support resource development projects in northeast BC, whether the desired product is mineral or construction rock. As with Integrated Fibre Ltd., this operation also sensitizes IPAC to the real-world challenges associated with development, referral, and permitting of mines in BC.
For Project Proponents:
Engaging IPAC and Our Partners
Whether your project requires specific technical competencies, Indigenous business participation, or an expanded team to meet project needs, IPAC's in-house capabilities and competencies combined with our partners, joint ventures, and business alliances, is ready to assist. We are a boutique firm with very high in-house skill and expertise derived from 34 years of operations, seasoned by real-world experience in associated resource-based operating companies that we own and manage. IPAC's exceptional employee retention has added significant depth to the firm. We strive to maintain a functionally effective ratio of mentors to new hires. Complementary partnerships and alliances add capacity and capability, and allow us to scale up and adapt on relatively short notice. We provide comprehensive civil survey, full-scale forestry services, operational permitting for projects, resource road layout and geometric design, timber harvest planning, logging supervision, and timber marketing, CAD/GIS and survey-related geomatics, and more. Our suite of services is diverse. Our teams fit and contribute well in most major resource-related and/or infrastructure civil projects in BC. Our Indigenous business status and Indigenous partnerships and broad professional alliances combine with our real-world experience and technical expertise to yield exceptional Indigenous performance and results. We operate with top-tier equipment, tools and technologies.
We pride ourselves on our ability to think critically and problem solve. Our depthful experience and expertise, combined with internal communication and mentorship protocols allows IPAC to identify cost-effective solutions, to overcome challenges, and to adapt and innovate. We impress on our employees and subcontractors the need to clearly understand how our product(s) will be used by clients. We focus on results - getting the job done right the first time.
Our services, and partnerships and alliance paradigm apply very well to the forestry, mining, oil & gas, energy and renewables, municipal and infrastructure, and First Nations sectors. We offer diverse services that are common in major projects planning, permitting, and early works, as well as civil surveying and geomatics, clearing and timber removal, heavy civil construction, sediment and erosion control, reclamation, and more. We welcome multi-faceted engagements.
Build Your Partnership With IPAC
Whether you're a project proponent exploring options to contract new Indigenous businesses, a First Nations organization looking for a trusted partner, a business looking to collaborate on resource and/or infrastructure work, or a First Nations community seeking to participate in local project delivery - IPAC is ready to talk.