When Jeremy Okolisan is at events, past Dumas employees and their families stop to talk about the impact it has had on them.
“They’d say ‘Oh my dad worked for Dumas, or my uncle worked for Dumas and you really took care of your people’” said the Dumas Contracting Ltd. president. “I think that was a big take away for me, and it was in my first month so I knew I made the right decision and everything I’ve heard about this company is true.”
On Wednesday (Aug. 21), the Timmins contractor celebrated its 30th anniversary with bouncy castles, a barbecue, and sunshine, as well as words of pride and gratefulness from the company’s leadership.
The commitment to take care of each other is something Okolisan was very conscious of during the celebration.
“We want to show our staff that we really appreciate what they’ve done for us,” he said. “Really, they’ve built this business along with the leaders.”
In 1994, Dan and Marc Dumas bought their father’s mining construction contracting company when he retired and it’s been growing ever since.
“They were a small private contractor based here in Timmins and then over the next 20 years really grew the business internationally,” said Okolisan. “They built shafts in Guatamala, in Peru, Mexico, in the states and across Canada.”
The company’s leadership prides itself on taking care of their people.
“There’s a lot of folks to keep track of, and part of our business is making sure we have the right people in the right places and the right people supporting them with logistics and benefits,” he said. “When you’re two weeks or three weeks on a site, you don’t want to be worrying if your claim is going through on your kid’s glasses. So we work really hard to make sure they have the support they need.”
Their location at 865 Mountjoy St. was built by the company and it’s been home since it went up.
“Dan built this building, we’re still here. We’ve got our shop a couple kilometres away,” said Okolisan.
Dumas is currently operating in five mines around Timmins and Okolisan said they’re hoping to grow further as opportunities open up.
“We’re not going anywhere,” he said.
