Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services
Kugluktuk (Jun 04/01) - Spatulas in hand, eight new cooks are happily ensconced as camp cooks at Diavik Diamond Mine's Lac de Gras site.
And the future also looks bright for the remaining Kugluktuk residents who participated in February's construction trades helper and camp cook helper training program and have not yet found jobs.
Alex Buchan, the Hamlet's manager of community development, said there was a 60 per cent rate of employment for graduates of the $224,000 program. He said he expected that number to increase now that a new camp at the Diavik site opened.
"They've completed another construction camp and can house about another 600 people.
With both camps, that brings the number to 1,200 to 1,400 people," said Buchan.
The shortage of space meant that even those residents with the necessary skills couldn't be hired.
"People will be contacted and the potential is there for more people to work."
Of the some 450-500 Kugluktuk residents in the workforce, roughly 70 hold jobs in the mineral industry.
