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From left, Chantal Lavoie, senior vice-president of operations for De Beers Canada, Kim Truter, president of Diavik Diamond Mines, Ricus Grimbeek, president and CEO of BHP Billiton, Jackson Lafferty, minister of Education, Culture and Employment and Bob McLeod, minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, signed an agreement to work towards a Northern mining workforce initiative, Thursday afternoon. - Herb Mathisen/NNSL photo

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Executives from the three largest diamond mines in the Northwest Territories signed an agreement to work together - and with government - to attract and retain workers to live in the NWT and to improve training opportunities in the North.

Kim Truter, president of Diavik Diamond Mines; Ricus Grimbeek, president and CEO of BHP Billiton - parent company of the Ekati diamond mine; and Chantal Lavoie, senior vice-president of operations for De Beers Canada, joined Minister of Education, Culture and Employment Jackson Lafferty and Bob McLeod, minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, to sign the agreement in the Great Hall of the legislative assembly, Thursday.

"The challenge in front of us is to work together, rather than in isolation, to retain the skill sets in the North and to look at maximizing the building of skills in the North," said Lavoie.

"That's what this memorandum of understanding is all about. It's working together, maximizing the return to the North and the tapping of all the resources up here."

The non-binding agreement to work towards what they are calling a Northern mining workforce initiative comes after a Statistics Canada report released this fall showed the NWT, despite having the strongest economy and highest average income in the country, was the only jurisdiction with a decrease in population in the past year.

Some discussion in the last session of the legislative assembly concerned recruiting fly-in, fly-out workers to stay and live in the North.

In early October, Dave Ramsay, MLA for Kam Lake, estimated there were more than 3,000 workers flying up to the mines and then home back south, taking more than $300 million out of the NWT economy each year.

McLeod said this agreement would be a step forward in keeping workers in the territory.

"On the government side, as minister, there are two things that we want to address: one is to increase employment of Northerners around the Northwest Territories and secondly to find ways to have more workers live in the North," said McLeod.

All three diamond mines have socio-economic agreements with the government, requiring them to hire a certain number of Northerners and spend in the North.

The agreement is a starting point for the groups to collaborate. Truter called the signing an "unprecedented agreement," with the three companies getting together to "harness resources."

A few specific ideas were touched upon.

The three diamond companies said they would look at pooling flights in and out of their sites to make sure flights were full.

Lavoie also said money could be saved by partnering with Aurora College for training courses. Lavoie said presently the three companies have separate agreements with the college.

Money potentially freed up from these initiatives could be reinvested in the North, Lavoie said.

Kim Truter said not only would there be benefits to Northerners through increased training and employment, but also through government revenues.

"If we generate more dollars, it helps fill the government coffers and that helps pay for goods and services that we all have grown accustomed to in this region," he said.

The government estimated about 60 per cent of jobs at the diamond mines are filled by Northerners.