First Nation buys strategic property in Wesleyville
By Sam Laskaris
MISSISSAUGAS OF SCUGOG ISLAND FIRST NATION – A construction company owned by an Anishinabek First Nation has bought a strategic piece of property in the southern Ontario town of Wesleyville.
Officials from Voyageur Services Limited, owned by Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation, announced they had purchased the prime industrial property last month.
But it remains to be seen how the company plans to utilize the property.
“Voyageur is basically a business entity which focuses on clean energy and construction,” said Kelly LaRocca, the chief of Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation, located in the Durham Region town of Port Perry. “So, Voyageur executives saw this as an opportunity to have a site that is basically situated in a major energy corridor.”
The cost to buy the property was not announced.
LaRocca said Clint Keeler, the CEO of Voyageur Services, asked First Nation officials for their thoughts of a possible purchase.
“We said we trusted his judgement and really followed his lead on whether to go in that direction,” she said. “He thought it would be geographically useful for Voyageur to be in that energy corridor.”
Voyageur, established in 2021, is a business which provides civil and construction services to the province’s clean and nuclear energy sectors.
Voyageur currently has offices on Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation and in Oshawa.
“I guess it’s just advantageous from a geographic point of view for them,” LaRocca said of the fact Voyageur now owns the Wesleyville site, located in the municipality of Port Hope, about 110 kilometres east of Toronto.
Keeler believes it was a wise decision to acquire the property.
“This property acquisition fits well in our continuing growth journey and will strengthen our service capabilities in support of our key clients in the geographic area,” he said. “We look forward to working with the township of Port Hope and our key clients as we finalize plans for this property and the employment opportunities it can bring for the region.”
It might be some time before exact plans for the Wesleyville site will be announced. But LaRocca said it was an appealing piece of land to acquire.
What did LaRocca find most appealing about it?
“The thought that Voyageur could potentially have other opportunities or use it for its business operations,” she said. “And that it would help us in terms of geographic placement within the corridor. I just felt it was a strategic move. To me it just made sense that it’s in the middle of the Lake Ontario energy corridor, from Pickering to Greater Napanee. It would be in amongst all of those major electricity generation and transmission systems that power much of Toronto.”
The site is located amongst companies that operate in the corridor including Ontario Power Generation, Hydro One, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories and Cameco.
Though concrete plans for the Wesleyville site have yet to be ironed out, LaRocca is hoping the investment proves to be a sound one, which will in turn benefit members of the First Nation.
“If Voyageur is a successful healthy company, it’s going to help our First Nation significantly,” she said. “So, that made sense to us. We believed in the strategy of being within that energy corridor.”