Kenora’s Indigenous owned businesses: Apex Rail Solutions

Part 1 of a new series on economic reconciliation in Kenora

Three years ago, Kenora local Al Gagnon started his business, Apex Rail Solutions, with just five employees. Today, they have more than 70 employees working on railways from coast to coast.  

“We’re one of the one of the larger railway contractors,’ said Gagnon, as Apex Rail now has a contract with CN Rail. “At any given time, you can see our crews in any province right from the Maritimes through to B.C.” 

The folks at Apex Rail Solutions are railway contractors, so if there are any repairs that need to be done on a railway track, they’re the people the call. “We would change rails and change ties, do welding, bridge work,” and emergency response too, said Gagnon.  

Apex Rails’ crews flew out from Kenora to Abbotsford, B.C. in 2021 during the floods and washouts they had to repair the railways in the Fraser Canyon for nearly three months. Last year they were called out to Alberta for about two months to protect the railway infrastructure during the forest fire season, Gagnon said. 

Like Apex Rail, Gagnon himself has also lived and worked from coast to coast. He was born and raised in Kenora and went to college in Thunder Bay before being recruited to the football team at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, N.S., where he stayed for a few years while working for CN Rail. Once he met his wife, the two moved to Kamloops, B.C., before eventually returning to Kenora to settle down with their new family.  

When CN Rail was going through a period of layoffs in 2016, Gagnon took the opportunity to start working as an independent contractor. “It was either take a layoff and sit at home and wait for the layoff to be over,” he said. Working as a contractor “really helped establish myself,” he added. 

Gagnon and his business partner made it a goal to become a nationally recognized contractor in the five-year plan when they started Apex Rail, but they were able to make it happen within just three years, he said.  

“I always wanted to have my company, my name, out there everywhere I’ve been throughout my life and career,” said Gagnon. “It’s kind of a surreal feeling to have that where your [staff] are being seen everywhere and your name’s being recognized throughout the country,” he said, reflecting on times where he would get calls from his friends whenever they saw on Apex truck on the road. 

With their around 70 employees, Apex Rail tries to maintain a more than 50 per cent Indigenous employment rate. “We’re known in the industry as an Indigenous company, so we do attract a lot a lot of Indigenous people,” said Gagnon. He and his business partner are both from the Metis Nation.  

“We’ve had a really huge success rate with that, giving lots of opportunity to individuals who may not have had the opportunity in the past,” he said. “We’ve built a really great crew.” 

Apex Rail tries to give back and support the community when it can. They currently sponsor local Indigenous men’s and youth hockey teams, Gagnon explained. 

“When we started our company, we were doing it to keep ourselves afloat,” he said. One of their first clients was Wabaseemoong Independent Nations.  “We’ve always tried to do what we can to give back to recognize that they put their faith in us and believe in us when we first started.” So when the community was displaced by forest fires in 2021, Apex Rail organized and donated meals and other supplies to the evacuees in Kenora and London. 

Because Kenora has such a large Indigenous population, Gagnon feels it’s important to highlight opportunities for Indigenous people. But Apex Rail is an inclusive employer in all senses, he said, with their workforce consisting of foreign workers and 2SLGBTQ+ people too, for example.  

“We’re just trying to be very inclusive and very positive all the time, and trying to share that with as many people as we can,” said Gagnon. “We want to be inclusive, we want to be positive, we want to provide opportunities to as many people as we can and just give people a good life. That’s been that’s been our goal, always.” 

Looking towards the future, Gagnon hopes Apex Rail can begin venturing into cross-boarded services with an expansion into the U.S. and Mexico, and projects continued growth in their workforce to 150 or 200 employees. 

Serena Austin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Kenora Miner and News