David Gonzales is a proud Squamish Person and Peak Construction Group’s Junior Construction Safety Officer at Sen̓áḵw. He is one of many Indigenous workers to receive new training and certification through the project, and with the experience he’s gained, he hopes to start his own construction company. 

He’s been on site almost every day for the past two years, but David Gonzales still has trouble believing his eyes. From what he describes as a “50-foot hole in the ground,” Sen̓áḵw has risen to include three towers of 27, 32, and 40 storeys in height.

“As soon as I heard the Sen̓áḵw development was starting, I knew I wanted to be involved. It’s pretty historical for our people,” David said. “I’ve put my name on a lot of sites over the years, but this one was really important to me—just to say I was there, I helped build this place.”

When he began working on the development in June of 2023, David was a general labourer. Since then, with support from the Nation and Peak Construction, he has worked as the lead hand of labourers, moved into material management and security, and most recently, completed his construction safety officer and advanced first aid training. 

“There’s a lot of opportunity on the site. It’s really great to see our Nation do this for their people—get them training and skills so that once this is done, they can advance in their careers,” David said. “I’ve had friends who I started out with as labourers on site and now they’re first-year plumbers, they’re apprentices in rigging, they’re taking their heavy equipment operator course.”

With the experience he’s gained at Sen̓áḵw, David hopes to start his own construction company. He also plans to pursue his national and international construction safety officer certification. But for now, he can’t imagine being anywhere else.

“I definitely want to see this project through to the end. I’ve accomplished a lot in two years here, I can’t imagine where I’ll be in 10 years.”