Naskapi Nation tracks housing costs through innovative software program

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John Mameamskum of the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach was surprised, "very surprised," that his community was nominated for a CANDO Economic Developer Recognition Award for a project that was designed to help the community keep better track of its housing maintenance and repairs.

"Everybody in the South, whether Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal, has the stereotype or attitude that the North is very primitive. We proved to the South that is otherwise. Being nominated is like being nominated for an Oscar or a Gemini," Mameamskum said with a hearty laugh. And while he didn't know who had done the nominating, "Whoever did that, I thank him from the bottom of my heart," he said.

The Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach is located on the border of Quebec and Labrador.

"We're in the Quebec and Labrador interior. We're just at the fringes of the border of Quebec and Labrador, right in the Labrador trough. The band is located about nine miles from Schefferville, Que. We have a population of 625 people. The Naskapi, themselves, signed a comprehensive land claim settlement on Jan. 31, 1970. The only way into Schefferville is by train, and by plane. We're considered a remote community under government criteria," he said.

The First Nation developed the software program that would manage housing programs in First Nations communities with a software company in Montreal. The first and only one of its kind, the program is capable of issuing confidential statements of accounts to tenants and keeping track of indebtedness. It also collects and tracks requests for home repairs, records cost estimates, issues invoices and purchase orders, tracks inventory, and manages an annual housing budget.

"Most of the work before was done manually," Mameamskum said. "It took time because there are various people, from the accountants to the payroll. It was like trying to put a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle together in a short time frame," he said.

"Whenever the accounting and housing department program wanted to know who was paying what, what kind of repairs versus rent was paid to date, it was a day of work, at least a day of work. Nowadays, you enter the numbers and [you know] what repairs were made on a certain date, certain week, certain month, and we have a read out on that as we see fit. And for the first time at our annual general meeting the band electors were able to see who got what," Mameamskum said.

"It's a safeguard for us to look at as administrators and managers to see if we are within our budgets on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, and all the way down to a yearly basis."

There are 106 Naskapi houses that are tracked with the program, with another seven under construction.

"The trouble that we had with the people was that they said the houses were never repaired. They were paying their rent on time. This time we had a print out of who got repairs and we had all the information right in front so they couldn't dispute those figures. We had dates and the time it took to repair a certain portion of the house. It simplified everything-simplified and was more efficient," Mameamskum said.

The product has application for use in other areas of the country. It's geared for First Nations' use and is actively being marketed with sales to communities in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Manitoba and British Columbia. The band would be happy to visit other First Nations communities to demonstrate the product and discuss the communities' individual requirements, Mameamskum said.

Displays of the product at other conferences have been successful, but the demonstration at the CANDO conference proved invaluable.

"The CANDO awards provided some very direct free advertisement for the band."

Naskapi would like to expand the program to handle housing construction equipment and supplies. He estimated the cost to build a house in his community is between $140,000 and $160,000, which is a lot of money to keep track of, he said. The expanded program hould help streamline construction efforts and save the band money.

Mameamskum is very proud of the achievement of the band in receiving the Economic Developer Recognition Award.

"It was the first time the band ever went public on a national basis to introduce something it never thought it had the expertise in."