Wednesday, November 08, 2000
The NWT's four-year $12 million job training plan recognizes that Northerners need to prepare for jobs that will come with the oil and gas boom.
And as Education Minister Jake Ootes says, the training has to provide skills that will allow Northerners to move up the employment ladder and to other projects.
It's a noteworthy approach to developing the economic potential of the NWT -- and it's critically important that the strategy looks beyond the jobs typically associated with oil and gas and other non-renewable resource industries.
While we need people to do the welding and operate the heavy equipment, there are other opportunities. As the training strategy itself points out, the oil and gas and mining industries need geologists and human resources personnel, accountants and mechanical engineers, surveyors and cooks.
There are other jobs, too. Administration and clerical jobs will open up in the communities. The territorial government may need new staff, from computer information professionals to doctors and nurses.
Also necessary will be counsellors to help people deal with the social issues that always seem to accompany sudden development.
Most importantly, we need our own people, who understand the North and its complex needs, in key leadership positions.
The training plan is a springboard to a brighter future.
But it also has to be recognized that while we're training for today's needs, Northerners must be prepared for the bust that always comes when non-renewable resources are tapped out.
The closure of the union hall at the Polar Bowl building marks the end of an important chapter in Yellowknife history.
The hall was home to the Canadian Association of Smelter and Allied Workers and later to the Canadian Auto Workers, which took over from CASAW.
The closure is understandable, considering membership in the union slipped from 300 workers to 37.
The strike and deadly explosion at the mine may have put the union hall in the national spotlight, but people need to remember the good things that were accomplished.
The CAW, though struggling with layoffs and dwindling union dues, continued to lobby Ottawa on behalf of the 180 workers whose pensions would be cut.
Then there's the transition centre, which helped dozens of workers find new jobs.
The hall may be gone now, but its accomplishments will continue to benefit workers for years to come.
Thankfully the 597 voters in Arctic Bay, Resolute Bay, Nanisivik and Grise Fiord have eight candidates to choose from when they go to the polls to elect a new MLA on Dec. 4.
Already without representation in the Legislative Assembly, the Quttiktuq riding has just learned that convicted sex offender Levi Barnabas has decided to enter the race that is being held as a direct result of his inexcusable behaviour one drunken night last summer.
Instead of gracefully stepping aside and putting voters and the GN out of their misery, Barnabas is prepared to challenge seven others for the job he quit in disgrace.
The voters' choice, however, cannot be denied. We hope they choose integrity over a sad record of bad behaviour.
Thanks to Esso Fun Days, Jennifer Franki-Smith can correct all those friends who said hockey is only for boys.
They should know better. As Canada's national team has often demonstrated women play the national game with skill and spirit.
The only wonder is that the idea has taken so long to reach Yellowknife.
The weekend hockey camp at the community arena tapped into a deep vein of interest.
Forty enthusiastic girls sampled the game and picked up a few basic skills. Many more said they would like to check it out.
The next step should be a league of their own.
Baker Lake MLA Glenn McLean is bang on with his assertion that the Nunavut Government is missing the boat on pre-employment mine training for Kivalliq residents.
While our government continues to spend time and energy on such pressing issues as the Nunavut time zone, a bonafide opportunity to make our region more economically self-sufficient is slipping through our fingers.
The government's failure to recognize the benefits of such training is disturbing.
Training would ensure a skilled workforce, and that means we would be able to fill job openings when they become available in Rankin and Baker Lake.
Local workers would also be able to reap the benefits many labourers from other provinces have enjoyed for years.
Those benefits come from holding trade tickets which allow them to work anywhere in Canada.
Every construction season, the cry goes up across the Kivalliq when we see workers from other provinces coming into our region to ply their trade.
But, who should we really be mad at?
Can we blame business for having to bring in skilled labour when our own government is doing nothing to train a local workforce?
With most mining and heavy equipment training taking four years, and the start of both Meliadine and Meadowbank estimated for 2002-2003, we're already behind the 8-ball in being prepared for when these mines become operational.
Maybe the Nunavut Government doesn't care about the extra revenue having 300 or more skilled Kivalliq workers would generate for its coffers, but we doubt it.
A more viable explanation would be this government's demonstrated habit of continually falling victim to the stop sign syndrome -- don't erect the warning post at the busy intersection until it's too late.
Equally annoying is watching other ministers continually beat the drum for training and industry development in their region while our own two ministers seem preoccupied with other concerns.
While we do not advocate civil disobedience, maybe it's time for Kivalliq hamlets to stage their own protests. Maybe one of our own ministers will then come calling to find out what the problem is.
Just ask the good folks in Cambridge Bay who decided last week it was "time" to get Minister Jack Anawak's attention.