A member of Tseshaht First Nation has won the 2012 B.C. Aboriginal Business of the Year Award in the two-to 10 employees category.
Waa-wee-na Cliff Braker, owner of Braker Electric Ltd., received the award at a banquet held Nov. 26 at the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver. While he wasn’t the biggest business to be honoured, Braker definitely had the most enthusiastic rooting section.
“I had two tables. About 20 people came over and supported me,” he said. “When my name was called, they all started screaming and yelling. I was the first to get my award, and the emcee said ‘I’m warning you other people, you’ve got lots of competition; this Braker Electric crowd – they’re pretty noisy.’”
The company was nominated for the award last spring by the Nuu-chah-nulth Economic Development Corporation. Braker was required to submit an application that included a personal and business biography, along with detailed financial statements for the previous three years.
“I guess they want to see how sound a business you are,” Braker said. “If your statements are good, you’re probably a reputable company.”
Braker Electric currently employs seven people full time, plus one casual employee. The company has partnered with the Industry Training Authority to train 14 apprentices over the years.
“Four of those are aboriginal, and two of them have moved on to start a new company in town,” Braker said. “Right now, I’ve got three apprentices at school. Two of them are in their second year at Vancouver Island University.”
The company was founded in 1978 by Braker’s father Tinus, who learned the electrical trade working at the MacMillan Bloedel Somass Division sawmill. Tinus had been doing electrical work on the side for many years, but made the decision to quit MB when he could no longer tolerate the cedar dust in the mill.
Braker was also doing electrical work at Somass. Co-workers thought he was making a big mistake leaving a secure job to join his father’s fledgling company, but things abruptly changed in the forest industry and those formerly secure jobs began to disappear.
“My dad hired me and one of my brothers, then [MB] called us back to wire a portion of the Somass Mill. They contracted us and we worked there for three months,” Braker said. “After that, we moved to Franklin Forest Products, then we wired Nagaard Mill.”
While it was good to get sawmill work at first, Braker said things got even better when the company began to get more commercial work.
“Sawmills are cold and dusty, and the money is tight,” he explained. “Anything to do with the forest industry is a hard way to make a living.”
By the time Braker bought out his father in 1992, the company had diversified into virtually all segments of the electrical market, from heavy industry to home construction wiring and repairs. In the late 1990s, Braker travelled to the West Coast to do a job for a friend, and discovered a huge untapped market. With a wild variety of medium- and large-size developments being undertaken in both Tofino and Ucluelet, there were no local electrical contractors with the capacity to take on the work, so Braker set up a satellite operation in Ucluelet.
“I started out renting motels for my guys. Then I started renting an apartment. It was a two-bedroom basement suite, and it was also my storage area,” Braker said. “Then my guys said ‘it’s getting crowded in here.’ We had to crawl over our supplies to get into bed.”
By 2005, the West Coast operation grew large enough that Braker built a warehouse complex for the company, with two attached residences and a commercial rental space.
“West Coast is probably 85 per cent of our work. We do quite a bit of work for Ahousaht First Nation. They’ve put a 63-house subdivision in. Over the last four years I’ve wired at least 30 homes. They gave me a really good reference letter for the award,” Braker said.
Over the years, Braker Electric has also taken on major and minor projects for Tseshaht, Huu-ay-aht, Ucluelet, Hesquiaht and Uchucklesaht First Nations, with a side trip over the Hump to wire a multiplex for Snuneymuxw. The company has handled a range of projects in the Port Alberni market as well as taking part in many of the major developments on the West Coast, such as Tauca Lea by the Sea, Big Beach Condominium, and Clayoquot Wilderness Resort.
There was little need to advertise on the West Coast, Braker said. Just the sight of a truck and a crew at work was often enough to attract new clients.
“It just exploded down there. I was doing a condominium called The Ridge, and a guy came up from the Black Rock Hotel and said, ‘I want you to wire my hotel.’ He said ‘you look a little busy, but have you got time?’”
Currently, Braker’s crew (including himself) is working on a renovation at the Ocean Village Resort, re-wiring 28 cabins. Also on tap are The Moorage (Phase 2) and the Gateway condo projects in Ucluelet.
“Then in January, we start at the Wickanninish Inn. That’s the time they shut down and do all their renos. It’s going to get hairy,” he said.
Braker said he has to fight the temptation to expand. While there is plenty of work out there right now, he is well aware that could change, and he feels a sense of responsibility to his core employees, which include wife Sophie and son-in-law Dominic McLaughlin.
“I’m happy right where I am now, but if I have to, I’ll hire more guys. I have to keep my regulars happy,” he said. “But the work keeps coming in every day. I could probably [prepare bids] steady for two weeks.”
The B.C. Aboriginal Business Awards were created in 2008 by the B.C. Achievement Foundation, in partnership with the Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation.
