Rankin Inlet (Oct 30/06) - A Kivalliq organization is working hard to ensure Inuit get their share of the jobs when the Meadowbank gold project becomes a working mine near Baker Lake.

Kivalliq students get instruction on the operation of a backhoe at a Morrisburg, Ont., training facility earlier this month. - photo courtesy of Ron Dewar

Kivalliq Partners in Development (KPID) hopes to combine two training programs to produce highly skilled heavy-equipment operators.

KPID currently has 12 student operators from six Kivalliq hamlets taking heavy-equipment training in Morrisburg, Ont.

Cumberland Resources Ltd., which owns and operates the Meadowbank site, has supplied KPID with a breakdown of the jobs that will be available at Meadowbank and the types of equipment that will be used.

KPID is working with the Morrisburg facility to tailor its program to fit those needs.

Chief-executive officer Ron Dewar said KPID has also developed Canadian Council contacts concerning the Environmental Cleanup Strategy.

He hopes to combine skill sets from the two programs to produce a group of top-notch operators.

"The cleanup strategy teaches operators how to work in an environment that contains toxic materials," said Dewar.

"With the feds committing so much money to the DEW Line cleanup, we're hoping one of our visions will evolve into something tangible, and we'll be able to provide joint training between the two programs.

"That way our operators will have both skills and be able to make themselves more flexible."

KPID is working with the Morrisburg training facility to refine the heavy-equipment program even further for its next group of participants in early 2007.

Dewar hopes that course will include instruction on how to operate the huge rock, or haul, trucks.

"There's a lot of extra training involved with handling those vehicles, including air-brakes, the transportation of dangerous goods, workplace hazardous materials information system (WHMIS) and first-aid.

"You need to have dangerous goods, WHMIS and first aid in your pocket when you climb into a rock truck.

"We hope to train our next group on the rock truck and one additional piece of equipment, such as a grader."