BBEEAARRCCLLAAWW TTRRAAFFFFIICC 100% MMAANNAAGGEEMMEENNTT IInnddiiggeennoouuss OOwwnneedd CHANGING WORKPLACE CULTURE by Kelly Fredrick - Tri-Fund Field Coordinator Mike Paypompee owner of Bearclaw Traffic Control is no stranger to the construction industry. He has extensive experience having worked in the oil and gas sector for over 20 years. Although he admits that workplace culture has definitely changed over the years, he knows what it’s like to feel like you are just a number. At Bearclaw the goal is to ensure that everyone working feels like it is a team, that there is a sense of belonging. 6 “That was important to me and to us, since we know what 2 it is like from our own negative experiences.” 0 E U S Mike who is from the Naotkamegwanning First Nation S I | (formerly known as Whitefish Bay First Nation) is proud of 4 2 his Ojibway heritage; “I have faced adversity and 0 2 statistically, I should be in jail or dead, but it’s about R E breaking the cycle. It’s about overcoming and not letting B M the barriers stop you. We have almost 40 staff now and E T more than 50% are Indigenous. They are succeeding and P E S doing really well,” he states.