Jobs growing in the North

Heavy equipment operation is just one area of job training provided by the NWT Mine Training Society. — Shelly MacDonald photo

The mining industry is in an upswing in northern Canada due to a renewed focus by resource companies on production and mineral extraction.

The recession slowed spending and impacted production, but now companies are hiring and expanding operations as export demand increases.

The Northwest Territories is rich in resources like gold, lead, zinc and copper, and is famous for its diamond mines. Companies are looking for skilled and semi-skilled workers to extract those minerals, said Hilary Jones, general manager of the NWT Mine Training Society.

“We have seen an increase in employment with companies ramping up production,” she said.

Companies need people skilled in all kinds of trades, as well as semi-skilled workers for underground mining and heavy equipment operations, according to Jones.

The NWT Mine Training Society was born out of an ad hoc committee of industry groups, First Nations, mining companies and different levels of government in 1995 when two mines shut down.

Growing over the years, the committee formed the Mine Training Society in 2004 and has since assessed 960 applicants and trained 600, with 500 of those finding employment.

Jones comes from a long family history of coal mining in Great Britian, but her father refused to get involved in the industry. Instead, he became a schoolteacher and emigrated to Canada.

Jones herself has spent 20 years in the human resources sector and eventually ended up back in the mining industry—to the dismay of her father, she joked.

The future is looking pretty bright for the resource sector in the Northwest Territories as projects get underway. These include the development of an iron mine on Baffin Island by Baffinland Iron Mines Corp. and the preparations for the Meadowbank gold mine by Agnico-Eagle near Baker Lake.