“We kind of saw a diamond in the rough here,” Cumberland House Cree Nation Chief Rene Chaboyer told reporters following the ribbon cutting. The main focus of the building will be affordable student housing and medical accommodation, although some plans for the property have been delayed because of the pandemic, Chaboyer explained. An on-site 24-hour daycare, with up to potentially 94 spaces, is also in the works. Chaboyer sees Cumberland Crossing Inn as “a pillar of success” for his Nation and the first of several new business ventures. “There’s good things in the works,” he said. “It’s truly a new beginning.”