Walter Smith: Oxymoron

"I am the Supervisor, Northern Community Relations. I manage the regional office in La Ronge for Cameco Corporation," said Walter Smith – two simple statements that seem to clearly describe who he is. But Smith is a walking oxymoron – his life so apparently contradictory, yet so harmonious.

He is a man who is not overly religious, yet he is highly spiritual.
He is a man whose job is most often at odds with his job title.
He is a man without solid roots, yet solidly rooted in community, family and tradition.

"My father passed away when we were young children," said Smith. "My mother couldn't handle that."

At age of nine, Smith found himself separated from his mother, his seven siblings and his community. "It was a trying time for Aboriginal people everywhere," he explained.

Through a twist of fate, the adult Smith worked alongside Antoinette Rediron – a close childhood friend of his mother. Rediron began filling him in about his mother's past. "It was a wonderful coincidence to be able to fill in the missing pieces," said Smith. "I shared that with all my brothers and I'm hoping that they'll understand our mother a little bit better and the circumstances we were in."

Smith, who still speaks Cree, says the government classifies him as Métis, but he calls himself a "Canadian Aboriginal person. I identify myself most closely with the communities where I grew up – Pinehouse, Sandy Bay and La Ronge – because that's where my most years of influence have been," he said.

"We live on the Lac La Ronge Indian Band reservation. My wife is First Nation and that is where we feel most comfortable."

Along with wife Laurie, Smith is experiencing parenthood all over again through grandson Keagan. "We felt we were in a better position to raise him," said Smith. "Everything is like a perfect fit for me right now," he said.

Affectionately calling him "Boo-Boo," Smith describes his grandson as, "Perfect age – just enough trouble and just enough joy to make life fantastic. He always wants to play hockey outside. He always is going, going, going. He wants to go up north to check the net; he wants to go trapping and hunting."

Keagan with grandfather Walter “Just enough trouble and just enough joy to make life fantastic

Photo courtesy of Walter Smith

In the intervening years between being separated from his siblings and raising busy little Boo Boo, Smith went through many transitions.

"Very few people that grew up in foster homes managed to have the success rate that I managed to accidentally have," he said. "At any point in time, I could have taken the wrong path. As you get older and wiser and meet the right people, you get influenced by the right things and you have the opportunity to make choices that are better for you and better for people around you."

One such choice has been Smith's career. After graduating from Sandy Bay's class of one, Smith completed a chemical technician course at Northlands College. Since there were no openings in his field, Smith took a trainee position as administrative assistant at Cameco's head office in Saskatoon.

For the next 18 months, Smith struggled to learn the intricacies of corporate life. He found the move from small northern community to urban head office "a drastic change for an Aboriginal person."

When the position of Northern Affairs Officer opened up in the La Ronge office, Smith took it eagerly. He became a liaison – visiting schools to increase knowledge about the uranium mining industry.

A year later, Smith found himself at the company's Key Lake site in another department: Employee Relations/Recreation. For the next three years, he looked after catering contracts, facilitated recreational events and employee relations, developed sign-off documentation, and conducted camp tours.

He moved on to Cameco's Contact Lake gold mine, as an Employee Relations Officer. The minesite was shutting down, and Smith's was to transition staff to positions within the company's uranium operations.

"Being a non-union site, you did as much of everything else you could and you felt comfortable with. It was a nice learning experience," he said. He learned about warehousing, mill operations, and even welding. Ultimately, 90% of the people were re-employed within the company; 10% found other employment. "It was a nice transition for a lot of them," said Smith, but "It was a sad day for everyone because it was a nice, small camp to work in."

Smith returned to Key Lake, but with uranium prices plunging to $7 a pound, the industry was in trouble. So he returned to school to finish the Education degree he had begun years earlier. "While I was gone my job disappeared, which was, in a way a good thing because then He took severance pay, using the time and money to complete his education.

In 2001, "I was called back in the day I graduated," said Smith, this time as the Northern Community Relations Specialist. This new role involved, "going out to communities, hosting public consultations, looking after logistics, also being the interface for the corporate office with northern communities," said Smith. In 2003, Cameco promoted Smith to his present position.

From administrative assistant to metaphorical fire fighter, Smith has come a long way. In what he calls a "generalist job, "today Smith meets with anyone from senior members of Cameco to senior leaders in the north, senior government officials to local government leaders, local community leaders and members, "to people walking in off the street looking for a job," he said.

His job now entails everything from organizing youth conferences to looking after the donation budget, recruiting for all the northern minesites, education, scholarships, school tours, school visits, and community visits.

What does Smith like best about this eclectic job? "The fact that it is eclectic," he said. "You never know what's going to happen," he said. "You're always a little off balance, but it sharpens your skills . . . because you are always expecting the unexpected."

"You try and make sure that you have all the information to make sure, if you hear something in a community, that you have the back-up information there [so] that you can either agree or disagree with the comments being made, because community people are very close. They hear things and sometimes they take it to heart. Sometimes they don't hear the other side before they make a reaction. We have to make that those kinds of things are handled properly because they can come back and haunt a company quite easily," he said.

During his off time, Smith enjoys traditional pursuits. "We still go to the trap line. We still hunt. We still fish," he said. "My wife and I still make moose hides together. She is a skilled beader and craft maker."

Smith says he follows these pursuits not because he needs to but because "it keeps us involved in our northern culture. It's who we are after all. . . . Aboriginal people. We've always been this way."

"I'm not overtly religious but I believe in a Creator," he said. "I am spiritual in nature: look after the place that you are in; look after the people that are around you. If I can leave an impression that it's better that I was here than I wasn't, then I would be happy – then I've accomplished everything I need to."