Little Red River Group of Companies

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“We are committed to employing, training, coaching, and developing our First Nations community members,” says Jon McQuinn, CEO of the Little Red River Group. “Our employees are our most important asset. It is our employees who deliver a positive image of the company, and we are extremely proud of the social impact they have within the Little Red River Cree Nation.”

“As we grow our business,” he adds, “we look to set an example of what a successful First Nation owned business can provide in terms of sustainable well-paying employment opportunities for our community members.”

In order to create that impact and set that example, however, the Little Red River Group recognizes that they need to draw on the knowledge and experience of already-established industry experts. To that end, they have worked with some industry veterans with many years’ experience in order to help lead and grow their divisions.

The group’s civil construction division, for example, is called ‘Caribou Mountain Construction.’ Until recently, that division was led was headed by Gareth Jones, who has personally been in the construction industry for over 20 years – and for almost 10 of those years, he worked as a construction manager for Ledcor, one of Canada’s largest and most diversified construction companies. In 2022, Gareth brought that experience and expertise to Caribou Mountain Construction – that was roughly three years after the formation of the company, and of the Little Red River Group as a whole. He was drawn to the group because he believed in their founding mission:

“I wanted to make a social impact,” he recalls. “I wanted to help people. I wanted to help build and grow a business. Caribou Mountain Construction was the perfect opportunity to do all those things.”

In his time with the company, Gareth did indeed help Caribou Mountain Construction build and grow. Prior to his involvement, he says the company had some challenges largely because the management team was inexperienced. With his guidance, however, the company learned how to properly analyze risk, how to build out successful project teams, and how to properly sequence a project. 

“When I came aboard, my focus was implementing the right processes and procedures, and putting the right people in the right places,” Gareth recalls. “I think we were very successful at that. When I came in, I think we were operating at a net loss but we ended the year in a slightly profitable state. The company has grown even more since then and we’re very proud of that.”

In Gareth’s time, Caribou Mountain Construction also formed a lot of important new relationships with industry stakeholders – including employees, engineering firms, subcontractors, and also utility providers and other construction companies. The strength of those relationships has also helped propel the company’s growth.

“We’ve made a name for ourselves in northern Alberta,” Gareth says. “It’s been a wild ride, but a very rewarding one.”

Gareth very recently moved on from Caribou Mountain Construction to focus on his role in a company he founded, but he is currently helping Caribou Mountain Construction with the transition, and he will continue to work with the Little Red River Group on a consulting basis.

These days, the team at Caribou Mountain Construction comprises about 20-to-25 people. That team is capable of taking on a wide array of projects that fall under the category of ‘civil construction.’ The list includes: telecommunications, shallow utility installation, deep utility installation, earth moving, lot servicing, clearing and grubbing, vegetation management, road construction, storm pond construction, dredging, and offshore marine construction.

According to Jon McQuinn, clients in those categories choose Caribou Mountain Construction for a “few main reasons.” One of those main reasons is the fact that they are 100 per cent First Nation-owned. He says there are a couple benefits to that ownership – for example, as part of the government’s work to advance economic reconciliation, Canada is supporting Indigenous businesses with federal government procurement opportunities, and Caribou Mountain Construction is well-positioned to take advantage of those opportunities. In addition, Jon says Caribou Mountain Construction can sometimes be more competitive when bidding on certain projects “because we have relationships with other First Nations.”

“For instance, if you’re building a pipeline through Alberta, you’re very often going through First Nation-owned land,” he explains. “We have a market advantage on those projects because we can integrate with other First Nations, because we’re owned by a First Nation ourselves. It’s easier for us to work with those local communities than it is for a lot of other companies.”

Another big point of difference is the in-house experience they now have, Jon says. Even minus Gareth, the company’s management team includes leaders with many years’ experience working for national industry leaders including Ledcor and AECON. At the same time, unlike those companies, Caribou Mountain Construction is a small and nimble business. That means they can offer the best of both worlds – they can leverage the knowledge and expertise that comes from working with larger companies, but they can act a lot faster and be a lot more responsive than those companies, because they are not burdened by the same bureaucracy.

“We can be more efficient,” Jon says, “because we have lower overheads and less of the red tape that gets in the way. We can act fast and be agile in the way we manage a project. I think that’s one of the main things clients like about us.”

Another thing clients appreciate about the company, Jon believes, is that they are “truthful and honest,” and they keep “open lines of communication.”

“If there’s a challenge on a project, we bring it up right away,” he says. “We let the client know what the challenge is and what the path forward is to finding a solution. And we’re collaborative when we walk that path. We involve the client in the decision-making process. We work with them, we don’t just tell them how it’s going to be.”

Caribou Mountain Construction is also highly committed to the health and safety of their employees, subcontractors, and clients. Jon believes that’s one more thing clients appreciate.

Jon explains how that commitment to safety is reflected in the company’s COR certification – COR being a nationally recognized health and safety certification program for employers in the construction and related industries. To obtain COR certification, a company must achieve an 80 per cent score on a certification audit by an external auditor, and to retain certification they must repeat that feat every two years. Over the past couple years, Caribou Mountain Construction has actually increased their COR score from 80 to 97 per cent – which demonstrates their dedication to continuous improvement and to ensuring that “everyone goes home to their families at the end of the day,” Jon says.

Relatedly, Caribou Mountain Construction is also committed to the health and protection of the environment. According to Jon, “environmental protection is always top of mind – we recognize we are stewards of mother earth and must protect the environment for future generations.”

One more point of difference is the company’s membership in the larger Little Red River Group of Companies – which is a diversified group with a wide range of expertise that Caribou Mountain Construction can access and leverage as needed. In addition, between their various divisions, the group maintains a wide variety of equipment, which Caribou Mountain Construction can also access when needs arise. The group’s diverse fleet includes: cable/conduit plows, excavators, mini excavators, bulldozers, graders, packers, mulchers, skid steers, a marine dredging barge, rock trucks, gravel trucks, and a 100 ton all-terrain crane.

The next level

According to Gareth, 2023 was a very successful year for Caribou Mountain Construction. In particular, he says they successfully delivered a lot of telecommunication relocation work – meaning, as the government has built new roads, or expanded roads, or replaced bridges, Caribou Mountain Construction has had the opportunity to go in and move the telecommunications infrastructure so it’s not within the new footprint of the new and/or revitalized roads or bridges.

“We’ve done a really good job of managing that program, of getting those jobs done fast and efficiently,” Jon says. “I think the guys have been awesome at that, and it hasn’t always been easy. Those projects have required a lot of coordination and working through a lot of challenges, and there has always been a tight deadline. Our crews have done an amazing job of getting everything done on time and being really efficient. We’re very proud of our work there.”

Moving forward, Caribou Mountain Construction is interested in continuing to do that kind of work. In general, they see a lot of and up-and-coming highway projects on the horizon, and they want to be as involved as possible.

“I think those projects will really benefit our company, as well as the Little Red River Cree Nation that owns our group of companies,” Jon says. “I think we’ll have an amazing opportunity to hire more local First Nation people and train them into competent operators, supervisors and managers. I think there will be a lot of educational opportunities and economic opportunities that will benefit these remote and rural communities.”

“We’re very excited,” he adds. “We believe those projects are going to help a lot of people – and they are going to help the company too. We’ll be able to bring in a lot of skilled people and we’ll be able to grow the company to the next level.”

“So we definitely want to grow,” he concludes. “We want to be one of the primary construction companies in northern Alberta. We want to be known as one of the leaders in heavy civil and road construction projects. Most importantly, we want to have a long-term sustainable workforce of majority First Nation and Indigenous employees, and we want to be here for decades to come.”

For more on Caribou Mountain Construction, their capabilities, their key team members, and examples of past projects, visit https://cariboumountainconstruction.com/

And for more on the rest of the Little Red River Group of Companies and the varied services they provide, visit https://lrrcn.ab.ca/corporations-societies/