NANAIMO – With its partners, Mosaic is celebrating the success of the Indigenous Internship Leadership Program – an initiative created in 2019 that pairs Indigenous learners with internships to gain experience and accelerate their career development.
“This internship program originated through the Champion’s Table – a group of First Nations and private sector leaders brought together under a memorandum of understanding between the BC Assembly of First Nations and the BC Business Council,” said Greg D’Avignon, President of BCBC. “This program supports a core aim of our group – to enable capacity and people to pursue sustainable economic development that supports Indigenous people and families while building toward full reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. I’m proud of these success stories that truly represent the partnership in action, and Mosaic has been a key partner from the beginning.”
For the past two years, Mosaic has had the pleasure of working with intern Hayden Leo as a Forester in Training. Hayden’s career objectives for his time with Mosaic were to learn diverse operational skills that he could take with him back to his community and his role at Lil’wat Forestry Ventures LP.
“My internship at Mosaic has been an incredible learning experience, and my supervisors focussed on providing exposure and training in a huge diversity of professional practices,” said Hayden Leo. “From learning how to plan at higher levels to fully engineering a harvest unit, this internship will help me become a more well-rounded forestry professional and better equip me to go back and help my community.”
Lil’wat Forestry Ventures LP (LFVLP) is a division of the Lil’wat Business Group – a Nation-owned enterprise focused on generating revenues for reinvestment in the community while creating employment opportunities and building capacity within the Nation. LFVLP manages a harvest of approximately 70,000 cubic metres each year – or roughly one-third of the entire allowable annual cut volume for the Lil’wat Traditional Territory. For Lil’wat GM of Forestry Operations Klay Tindall, nothing is more important than developing leadership and skills within the Nation to manage the land and resources of the Traditional Territory.
“Our Lil’wat Forestry Ventures crew is a team of skilled professionals, providing forestry harvesting and management services for our Nation and business clients,” said Tindall. “Building on that capacity will help our business grow and expand on the value we create for the Nation.”
“Mosaic is committed to working with Indigenous partners to develop the next generation of forest stewards, marrying the latest science and Indigenous knowledge to produce better outcomes,” said Jeff Zweig, President and CEO of Mosaic. “Hayden was a key contributor during his time at Mosaic, and we benefitted through his commitment and sharing of Indigenous knowledge.”
Applications for the program are coordinated through Vancouver Island University (VIU), which generously supports the initiative by coordinating and matching applicants with positions. “VIU sees this work as a critical piece of furthering the truth and reconciliation process in Canada,” said Dr. Deborah Saucier, VIU’s President and Vice-Chancellor. “Since the program’s inception, we have paired 58 interns with high-quality internship opportunities right across the province. One of our core values is supporting students to have practical hands-on learning opportunities as we know how important these experiences are to their long-term success, providing a powerful step forward in their development.”
Applicants interested in applying to the internship program can find more information at https://studentemployment.viu.ca/iilp/home.htm.