Nunavummiut workers at Baffinland’s Mary River iron mine, who have been off from work since March 2020 due to COVID-19, now have official approval to return to their jobs.
Chief public health officer Dr. Michael Patterson and the Government of Nunavut have endorsed the mining company’s return-to-work plan for residents of the territory, Baffinland announced on July 15.
The company is in the process of finalizing logistics and is communicating with employees about their first day back at site and the reintegration process.
“Baffinland has put in place a number of measures to protect the health of workers and their home communities, and now that travel restrictions have also been lifted in Nunavut, I support Nunavummiut returning to work at the Mary River Project,” Patterson stated.
Baffinland’s 2019 Socio-Economic Report, the most recent filed on the company’s website, shows that there were 187 direct Inuit employees and 230 Inuit contract workers at that time.