Williams Lake Indian Band breaks ground on new $8-million government building

It was a ground-breaking day for the Williams Lake Indian Band.

The WLIB event took place Monday on the site where their new government building will be constructed at the South end of hole number one at the Coyote Rock Golf Course.

Chief Willie Sellars said the vision to build it had been in the works for a long time and came from his mentor and former Williams Lake Indian Band Chief Ann Louie.

“The vision of this new Government building was created by my former mentor, my former Chief Ann Louie. She had the vision of having our staff under one roof,” he said. “If you go out to the Williams Lake Indian Band right now at IR 1 you’ll see our staff is spread out over at least a half dozen buildings and that’s not very easy for the membership to navigate through.”

Sellars said it was their vision of having a building that will house all of the WLIB staff under one roof.

“For me to inherit that and continue to push it along with the help of our staff and the rest of council has not been coming up with a design that will keep everybody happy, but I think we’ve got a winner in this one”.

In addition to offices, Sellars said this new Government building will also be unique.

“What we’re going to have in there is actually pretty neat,” he said. “We’re going to have an archeological repository and a laboratory. We’re going to have some really unique cultural components, we’re going to have the ability to repatriate artifacts, showcase artifacts we currently have gotten with the help of Sugar Cane Archeology helping strengthen and help our culture”.

The new 18-thousand square foot Government building will cost approximately $8-million and take 14-months to construct

“The partners we are working with on the build is a local group Lauren Brothers Construction Ltd. who did the construction of the new Fire Centre at the Airport,” Sellars said. “They’re doing everything that they can to source all the subcontractors locally as well”.

“We’ve had to take special precautions to proceed with the project,” he added. “And we wouldn’t be moving forward with this construction without the utmost confidence that we can do it in a safe and orderly fashion.”