Hiring Nunavummiut with a background in the trades is one of the ongoing challenges that mining companies face, but that workforce is growing with help from Fossil Creek Industrial Training Incorporated.
The Hamlet of Arviat, with support from the Kivalliq Inuit Association and the Government of Nunavut, contracted the company to conduct a 10-week heavy equipment operator course last year. Nine students completed that training.
"[It] was a fun time operating these big machine [they] had some awesome... instructors," said participant Braden Nakoolak, of Arviat. "Thanks to you guys and the hamlet for this opportunity."
"Best thing that ever happened to me," said Kyle Kablutsiak.
"Been a fun couple of weeks," added Alexander Angalik. "Thanks for the opportunity on this heavy equipment."
Dylan Plosz, director and lead instructor with Fossil Creek, is now looking to take the knowledge and experience honed in the south, already successfully applied to the Nunavut context, and turn that into a major regional training operation based in Iqaluit.
“What we’ve noticed a problem with is if you ask people to leave their community to do the schooling, they either end up getting lost, or won’t come at all," he explained. “My main goal in the Baffin [region is]... you come into our course [and] two months later you have the skills that your local industry is looking for, whether it be soft and hard skills for admin-related roles, and then industrial [skills] for trades.”
Fossil Creek Industrial Training is currently collaborating on a course with the Trades and Apprenticeship Program of Nunavut.
“The training is what I’m really excited about here. I’m going to find the Inuit tradespeople, and turn them into instructors, if they want to," said Plosz. "So that these courses can be delivered 100 per cent in Inuktitut and guided by someone who speaks Inuktitut.”
He noted that the company recently sent its trainers to the Kitikmeot region.
"We’d like to amp that up here in Iqaluit, so in five years I can leave, and the school can be self-sufficient," he said. "I’ll make sure we have the right people in terms of mentorship.
“For instructors, it’s just too expensive to bring them up here. So it makes the bills so high that the employers can’t afford it, and [can’t] continue operations with the locals. Since I started training in the Arctic, 25-75 per cent of every bill is travel, accommodations and per diems, and then also rental vehicles to transport.”
In order to combat these logistical issues, Plosz has a new approach of centralizing all these vital aspects of the construction business in Iqaluit. Additionally, he's taking the next step of incorporating instructors at no cost to the client as a way of encouraging training en masse “right here in Baffin."
“One of the things that set us aside... is I want 30 to 40 years experience before you’re teaching another individual," he said.
“The real goal is to make sure that with all the construction happening in the Baffin region here, that we can indeed support the workforce for it. Make sure that these individuals go into a job knowing their rights as a worker, for starters, which is where I’ve seen construction companies steamroll over their Inuit help... we’re also here to make it a bit easier for these companies to be WSCC [Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission] compliant.”
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