b'CCAB MEMBER PROFILEIn 2018 Bill Beaucage received the Nishnawbe Aski Development Funds Businessman of the Year Award for his success with Praztek Constructionand CEO Pete Beaucage Jr. Its the bestOntarios north, where he worked yearshis company by himself, with zero financial feeling in the world.before getting the itch to come back home.support. I never got funding, not once, I thought, I cant see myself being outhe says. I tried, though. I applied to a Before Beaucage became an award- here forever. Im just going take a leap ofgovernment program that paid an unem-winning contractor, he was just yourfaith and quit, says Beaucage. ployment rate while you started a business, average kid growing up in Timmins, Ont.but they denied me since they said that I As the youngest in a long line of MtisIt was a leap that soon paid off. Not longdidnt get laid off from my job. I had quit.builders, Beaucage started working at anafter venturing back home to Timmins, early age. He was only 12 when he beganBeaucage found himself working for aUndaunted, Beaucage forged ahead with helping after school and on weekends atmining company with a flexible schedulehis own tools and a few hundred dollars to his fathers shop, Renaissance Buildingthat afforded him four days off at a time.his name. Over the next year, he took on Systems. Ive had a passion for construc- He recognized an opportunity to starteverything from small jobs to large-scale tion my entire life [and it started] as a littlebranching out on his own. I didnt knowrenovations, eventually gaining enough boy, he says. I was going to work all thewhat to do with myself for those four daysbusiness to justify leaving his mining job time and visiting my dad and grandfa- because I was used to working all the time.and giving Praztek his full attention. In thers job sites. I kept doing that throughI was kind of going bananas, so I said, Immy first year, I think I did just under $2 high school. going to start doing side jobs, recallsmillion in work, he recalls. I would do 11 Beaucage. Thats when I started Praztek. hours a day on the tools and then come Shortly after his father closed shop,home and spend more time doing all the Beaucage left his hometown to work forBUILT BY HAND paperwork and planning. I knew that I a rural home builder in Bradford. BarelyBeaucage was not sure how far his newhad to put in that effort and time if I was a year later, he was recruited to becomeventure would go at first, especially whengoing to build the right foundation for a construction manager for a company init became clear that he would need to startthe company. Aboriginal BUSINESS REPORT105'