Sidney Seymour, Civil Engineer

Proudest Achievement

Proudest Achievement

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"When I first started in engineering, my long range goal was to use the skills that I gained from taking this training in my communities.

"Right now that's the proudest achievement I've been able to reach. I'm using my engineering skills, that they supported me in getting, to give back to the community."

Sewer and Water

Sewer and Water

A civil engineer works in the disciplines of sewer/water infrastructure. As a Tribal Engineer, I look after that for the nine First Nations communities in my region.

I help them to look at the system, see what's wrong with it and depending on what is wrong with it, I bring in the appropriate people to help them get it fixed.

Travel to Communities

Travel to Communities

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"We do quite a bit of travel into the nine communities. Five of them are fly-in communities, so we have to fly into the communities during the summer.

"And then during the winter road season you can drive up into them. But for instance this year, one of our communities we still can't drive up into. The road still isn't in there."

Traditional Knowledge

Traditional Aboriginal knowledge definitely comes into play when I'm doing the beginning parts of a construction project.

To use the Pauingassi School as an example, we didn't want to put the school site on a graveyard or unsuitable soils. I went to talk to the Elders about that.

Some of those Elders have been there longer than the community has. It is important that they're respected and consulted.

Where I Work

Where I Work

I am a Tribal Engineer for the South East Resource Development Council. I provide both project management and advisory services. The Bands pay the Council for these technical advisory services.

To supplement that, we've also started up a small consulting arm where we do for-fee services such as project management and the type of service normally done by outside consultants.

Building Schools

Building Schools

Right now we're doing a school, so on the project management side I manage the overall construction, the money, hire the consultants and the contractor, and that type of thing.

On the advisory capacity, I tell them the steps required to get to the stage of actually getting the school, because the Bands might not know what the process is to get the project to go ahead.

Thinking Logically

Thinking Logically

I'm a logical person. I see stuff in a linear way and that fits my job. There's a certain sequence to things that need to get done.

You can't start building a school before you do the design, and you have to look at all your constraints before you go on to the next stage.

People Person

People Person

I like interacting with people and I like the fact that I'm dealing with my own people too.

I like the fact that I'm an Aboriginal engineer working for the Tribal Council that's providing Engineering services to our communities.

That was something that I thought should have happened a long time ago.

Solving Problems

Solving Problems

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"I think the biggest part of Engineering that I'm using now is my problem-solving ability. It might not be a specific math problem that I know, but I know how to solve problems.

"I'm able to draw upon my math and science background. I know that I have to break it down into steps.

"You can break any problem down into a series of steps and as long as you follow those steps, you'll come to a solution."

Taking Work Home

Taking Work Home

Sometimes it's a little difficult to separate work and home. When I'm away from work I still worry because of the way the funding works for the infrastructure in the communities, for their sewer, water or roads.

A lot of our communities have substandard systems. Out of the nine communities I think there's only one that actually has sewer and water in every single home.

All these are types of things that bother me after work.

Dealing with Pressure

Dealing with Pressure

Sometimes it's high-pressure, especially when there is emergency stuff. This winter road stuff in particular is high-pressure.

For example, the Pauingassi School. If the winter road doesn't get into Pauingassi, we'll be cancelling a million-and-a-half dollar project.

So what happens then - it gets delayed for a whole year? Do we still have that money in a year?

Long Travel Days

Long Travel Days

i also travel quite a bit, doing monthly site visits in the nine communities where I have projects and see what the problems are. All the communities are in the southeast region of Manitoba.

If we've got a project up in Brokenhead, we'll stop in there, have a meeting in the morning, then drive up to Hollow Water to have a meeting in the afternoon.

We'll come back the following day or else we'll stay, spend the night over there and have a meeting coming back again in Black River.

Mostly Office Work

Mostly Office Work

I have an office in Winnipeg and most of my work is done through there.

I review project designs, communicate with clients and contractors, negotiating and troubleshooting issues and write a lot of reports.

Answering Questions

Answering Questions

The majority of my day is spent dealing with questions that come up throughout the course of the construction of a job or throughout the design of it.

They want to know whether there are accommodations in a community, or they want to know where the design is at right now, or when the crews are coming up, or who's going to do the work, or what the schedule is. Those are all the types of questions I have to answer and to organize.

Site Visits

Site Visits

When I go to the communities, I usually meet with either the Chief or one of the Councillors to see exactly what they're looking for me to do. It may be to go and inspect the facilities, like a house or a water treatment plant.

We collect as much data as we can and then we end up usually coming out that day. On occasions we spend a little bit longer time there, depending on the scope of work that we need to do

Can Be Hectic

Can Be Hectic

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"This past month has been fairly hectic because the majority of the places where we are doing construction this year are in fly-in communities. So access is by winter road to get the majority of the materials in.

"So hectic, starting right from the end of December when the winter road's just starting to open; trying to schedule people to go in and do the work that needs to get done."

My Family

My Family

I'm married with four children. I have one son, 22 years old and a daughter who is 18 years old. They're both at Red River Community College right now taking Business Administration.

Then I have two younger girls, one 13 and the other one 12. One's in elementary and one's in junior high.

Sharing the Load

Sharing the Load

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"My parents weren't very well off. I don't remember not having anything that I wanted, but I didn't want a lot of stuff anyway.

"Everyone in the family was taught to take their own load, be part of the family and participate in the development of the family."

No Roads or Power

No Roads or Power

Although my community was fairly close to Winnipeg, we were still fairly isolated when I was growing up. I remember not having any electricity in my home, and I'm only 41 years old.

We didn't get a road in there until maybe twenty-five, thirty years ago. I was a kid when the road came in.

Seymourville

Seymourville

I grew up in Seymourville, hence the name, Sidney Seymour. It's a small Métis fishing community that is beside Hollow Water First Nation. Only about a hundred and twenty people live in the community.

Hollow Water it had about four hundred people back then. I think there are around seven hundred there now.

Treaty Status

Treaty Status

The majority of our bloodline is Treaty Status Indian and I have full-status. When I started researching my family, I found my grandmother's last name changed five different times. It all depended on who was recording the names.

At that time my grandmother didn't write English so the priests recorded her name on the forms. One priest was French and he wrote it 'Simard'. Another one was English and he wrote it 'Seymour'.

Winding Road

Winding Road

Mine was kind of a winding road. I had kids already so I had to have some type of job. I ended up working as a maintenance man in our community but it just wasn't challenging enough.

First I went in BUNTEP, the Brandon University Native Teachers' Education Program. I liked learning all the things but not the actual teaching. Then someone came around doing recruiting for the Engineering Access Program.

Role Models

Role Models

As soon as I was old enough I was out helping my dad fishing and trapping and that kind of thing. When I was growing up and going to school, there didn't seem to be many options to what careers were available.

You tended to go with what you saw. So there were fishermen, teachers, occasionally RCMP, Child and Family services, or social workers. I hadn't heard of engineering until I was in first year of university.

Challenging Program

Challenging Program

I had never seen trigonometry until I started university. So I went from not knowing any trigonometry to getting an A+ in calculus, in three months.

In this special program, we were expected to be at the same level as somebody who'd been doing it for three years. They tried to get everybody up to the same level all the other Engineering students would have been at to get into that faculty.

Job Security

Job Security

I had also tried going into mechanics. But when I graduated, there was kind of a lull in the industry. I could only make about eight dollars an hour. I couldn't live in the city here and have a family with that amount of money.

And so I wanted to find a career that wasn't so affected by lulls in the industry. As a Civil Engineer, I will likely always be able to find work. We'll always need roads and we'll always need sewer and water.

Created My Luck

Created My Luck

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"People tell me I was lucky and I guess I was, because I got certain opportunities.

"But some of that luck I created by myself by asking for things that I wanted. I wanted to have a nice house; I wanted to have a nice family; I wanted to have a successful career.

"So I asked for those things."

MBA Someday

MBA Someday

My original plan was to work for about four or five years and then go back to university and take a Master's in Business Administration.

My plans have changed with my family growing, moving and paying bills, and with my wife going back to school to do her Bachelor's degree. After my wife has finished her degree, I will look at going back to school.

More Courses

More Courses

I'd like to take some more courses in things that affect my job right now, such as sewer and water treatment, and get a little bit more up-to-date on the type of systems that are there.

The plants get so complicated that I usually need to hire a consultant to do some of the work. It costs so much money to have these guys come in and out. To just to do a one-day thing costs us three or four thousand dollars.

So if I were trained in some of them there would be major cost savings.

Bright Future

Bright Future

I see this organization and others like it as a stepping stone in the Aboriginal community. Up until now we've been depending on Department of Indian Affairs and various other organizations to provide us with services.

But as we're expanding and developing our own skills and abilities and becoming more self-sufficient, organizations like this are going to be even more important. And it's going to grow.

Important Advice

Important Advice

(TEXT FROM SOUND BITE)

"I guess the biggest thing I want to stress is you've got to ask for what you want. Always ask for what you want. Don't be shy to ask for what you want.

"And if people tell you different, don't believe them. You've got to ask for what you want. That's the only way you'll get it."

Pass on Knowledge

Pass on Knowledge

I'd like to move out of this role and pass it on to another Aboriginal Engineer, so that they come up and see what we've done so far and we can pass that knowledge on.

And I'd like it to be somebody from one of the communities that I service in the South East Tribal Council. I know some in the Engineering Access Program right now are from my community. I'd love to retire and have one of them be the one that takes over.

Job Market Info

Job Market Info

The links below take you to federal and regional government information on employment, education, salary ranges and long range prospects for this career.

The official name for Sidney's occupation is "CIVIL ENGINEER" and its NOC code is 2131.*

Manitoba Job Futures

Manitoba Labour Market Information

Human Resources Development Canada

*Each occupation has an official name and unique number called the 'National Occupational Classification' code or 'NOC'.

Education

Education

Useful High School Subjects*

- Math
- Physics
- Computer-related courses
- English

*Source: Job Futures.ca

 

Below are links to various programs and courses that will put you on the path to a career in Civil Engineering.

University of Manitoba
Faculty of Engineering

University of Winnipeg
Engineering

Red River College
Full Time Day Programs
Then click on Civil/CAD Technology

Brandon University
First Year Engineering

University College of the North - The Pas/Thompson
All Programs (PDF)
Civil/CAD Technology - Page 28

Related Careers

Related Careers

Some related careers from Human Resources Development Canada web sites:

Civil Engineering Technologists and Technicians

Engineering Managers

Geological Engineers

Construction Managers

Transportation Managers

Professional Associations

Professional Associations

Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of the Province of Manitoba
- the provincial registration (licensing) body for Engineers

Consulting Engineers of Manitoba
- the provincial association for and listing of Consulting Engineers

Certified Engineering Technicians and Technologists Association of Manitoba
- the provincial certification body for Engineering Technicians and Technologists

Canadian Council of Professional Engineers
- the national organization of the provincial/territorial associations that regulate and engineering in Canada

Community Partners

Community Partners

This project was funded by Manitoba Education's Technical Vocational Initiative. Educational and community partners for this project are Frontier School Division and Wanipigow - Hollow Water First Nation. For more information, see below.

The Hollow Water First Nation is part of the Southeast Tribal Council Community. Wanipigow School is located on the Hollow Water Reserve and is part of the Frontier School Division.

The mission of the Frontier School Division is to provide, in partnership with parents and community, high quality education for all students so that they can develop the skills, knowledge, attitudes, and character essential for successful participation in our changing society.

The Technical Vocational Initiative works with education partners, business, industry and labour to develop and recommend strategies that address the six "Action Pillars" that form the core of its mandate. They invite you to visit their website to find out more about TVI's Vision, Pillars of Action and Expected Outcomes.