Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Fort Simpson (Aug 23/02) - In less than two months, a Fort Simpson environmental company has gone from being a concept to a contracted business.

Deh Cho Environmental Corporation is involved in a granular research survey along the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline corridor.

The business was launched by biologist Stephanie Sibbeston and her husband, Randy Sibbeston, along with brothers-in-law Murray Sibbeston and Tim McClelland. They quickly formed a partnership with Inuvik-based Inuvialuit Environmental and Geotechnical, providing them access to Inuvialuit Environmental's staff when needed.

Since early August, Deh Cho Environmental Corporation has been working alongside Inuvialuit Environmental, Colt KBR, Tera AGA, and Golder and Associates on a four-week granular survey for the Mackenzie Delta Producers Group.

The local company secured its portion of the contract through a bidding process, according to Tim McClelland, who has been running a Fort Simpson-based expediting company with Murray Sibbeston for the past five years.

"Now is the time for people to act on their business ideas if they want to benefit from new opportunities in the area," McClelland stated.

Stephanie Sibbeston said she's had an interest in environmental consulting since moving to Fort Simpson four years ago.

Due to landing other work and taking care of her children, she never got around to it, she said. Her recent motivation came when she realized people from the South were being hired to do fish and duck counts in the Deh Cho.

"I thought I'd better get on it," she said. "We make a dynamic team. With Randy's local knowledge and experience travelling on the land, and Tim and Murray's business experience with expediting and logistics, we can set these companies up with anything they need to get their work done."

Deh Cho Environmental Corporation doesn't have an office at present, but anticipates needing its own space and hired help in the future, Stephanie noted. "We want to do capacity building whenever we can and hire local people and train them," she said. "Just having people there with their local knowledge really helps a lot."