Corey Brown

Corey is a member of the Old Masset Village Band, which forms part of the Haida Nation on Haida Gwaii. He belongs to the Sta'staas Eagle Clan and is the nephew of the current serving hereditary Chief 7idansuu.  

After receiving a Diploma in Civil Engineering Technology from Camosun College in Victoria, BC, Corey completed his B.Eng. at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario followed by a M.Eng. in Environmental Fluid Mechanics at the University of British Columbia.

Corey has worked with clients on Vancouver Island since 2008 in civil and environmental engineering. Since founding Gwaii Engineering in March 2017, Corey has grown the business into a strong and proud aboriginal owned and operated consulting firm that aims to create capacity within First Nations communities on Vancouver Island and throughout BC.

M.Eng. EIT, AScT

Originally from Old Masset in Haida Gwaii, I am the youngest of four siblings. I lived in Haida Gwaii until I was 7 years old and then moved down to Sooke on southern Vancouver Island to complete elementary and high school. Most summers I returned home to my community in Haida Gwaii.

I entered the civil engineering technology program at Camosun College in 2007, following high school graduation. I was supported with funding from the Old Masset Village Council, who assisted 40-50 students per year through their postsecondary student bursary programs. The opportunities afforded to me by my Nation motivated me to strive for academic success.

I graduated from Camosun College as a civil engineering technologist, and quickly found a job with my now business partners. After gaining four years of industry experience, I decided it was time to return to school to complete a degree in engineering.

I made the decision, applied to Lakehead University, was accepted, and moved to Thunder Bay all within four quick months. I passed the two-month summer transition crash course, and was placed in the third-year engineering program. My Nation continued to fund my education throughout my time at Lakehead, and I worked hard to excel in the program. 

I met a lot of amazing people in Thunder Bay including students from all across the country. Lakehead is a hub in the middle of Canada attracting students from college civil programs coast to coast. I made some amazing friends during my time at Lakehead and we continue to keep in touch.

I graduated with my B.Eng. in 2015 near the top of my class and was offered an opportunity to complete my M.Eng. at Lakehead. My partner and family were all back home on the West Coast, so I decided to return home to complete my M.Eng. program in the UBC Civil Engineering Department, specializing in environmental fluid mechanics.  

I spent 10 months in Vancouver completing my M.Eng. over three semesters, with the generous continued funding from my Nation, graduating in 2016.  A highlight of my life was returning to my community to participate in a graduation ceremony hosted by my Nation, recognizing all postsecondary graduates that year. While I was home, my family held a potlach and gave me my adult Haida name. It was so special to celebrate my academic achievements with my family and community by my side. 

After graduating from UBC, I started working again with the same group I started with in 2010. In March of 2017 I started Gwaii Engineering. I am continuing to strive for ways to grow the business and give back to my community. I am currently pursuing my P.Eng and hope to have this completed by the end of the year.

We are going to be seeing Indigenous representation and ownership more and more in the engineering industry. When I first started 10 years ago, when I was going through the Old Masset funding process, they were super excited to see me in engineering because they had sponsored hundreds of students from Haida Gwaii and had yet to sponsor an engineering student.

When I started back then, I saw little representation from Indigenous students in these programs. I was probably the only Indigenous person I knew of at Camosun at the time. But by the time I got back into university, at UBC, I was encouraged to see higher numbers of Indigenous stuents. After graduating I met Kear, an Indigenous Engineering student at the University of Victoria. It was great to see how UVic prioritized Indigenous representation through their Indigenous program. Kear spearheaded a lot of those efforts. Seeing the Indigenous career fairs and job nights he was putting on, it prioritized seeing representation in engineering. It was great to see how much had changed in ten years. When I started Gwaii in 2017, there was only a small handful of companies in Canada that met that definition of being Indigenous owned engineering firms. As far as we know, we are still the only one in BC, but over the years, we have met more contacts that have similar companies to ours.

It’s all at a grassroots level, starting with education and seeing that representation in academics. We are seeing more young Indigenous professionals graduating from these engineering programs. It’s only a matter of time to seeing higher representation in this field once they get to higher levels in their careers, start their own firms, and establish themselves within the industry. It’s just a matter of time.