Fox Lake Elementary School

Fox Lake Elementary School (formerly Jean Baptiste Sewepagaham School), a 4,866m² elementary school located in one of Canada’s most remote communities south of the 60th parallel, is only accessible by air, over a 1.1 km-long ice bridge in the winter and by a small barge in the summer. In fact, at the project’s inception 1,200+ trailer loads of materials and equipment were shipped across the ice bridge to allow for construction to seamlessly move forward in the summer season. At the time, this project was the largest and highest risk in Canada’s Economic Action Plan (CEAP) and the isolation constraints, complexity of design and CEAP deadline of March 31, 2011 made this an extremely interesting project.

JEN COL’s strong partnership with the Little Red River Cree Nation fostered collaboration on the extensive civil scope, camp facilities, apprenticeship and training of local members and use of local equipment, making this a true “Community’s School.” This relationship and understanding between owner and construction manager allowed the project to finish on time and on budget even with some unique circumstances and constraints.

This project had the attention of the Federal Directors and Ministers for Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (now Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada). On their site tour, the overwhelming response was, “an amazing facility and unbelievable it was completed on time, considering the logistics.”

Project Awards:
2015 Alberta Masonry Award for Structural Masonry Design