IQALUIT - An Ottawa-based Arctic researcher is in hot water for comments he made about the Northern workforce last month at a conference discussing future economic opportunities for the territories.

The general manager at Agnico-Eagle's Meadowbank construction site, 70 km north of Baker Lake, says he's been impressed so far with the work standards of his Northern employees. Here, Baker Lake resident Sarah Silou works as a human resources clerk at Meadowbank. - photo courtesy of Agnico-Eagle

Speaking at North 2030: A National Planning Conference, Dr. Chris Burn, a geography professor at Carleton University, spoke of the economic opportunities in shipping, aviation, mining, oil and gas development, civilian support to military and tourism that will become available with the opening of the Northwest Passage.

"Sectoral skills will be necessary, and in the sometimes turbulent social world of the North, a culture of reliability and dependability will need to be encouraged," said Burn, who is also the Northern Research Chair for the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and frequent visitor to the NWT and Yukon, where he stages his research on frozen ground.

Clarifying his comments to News/North, Burn said, "...if you have private industry coming into an area, private industry can only operate if they have people to operate with. A trained workforce has two sides to it: the one side is the actual training, but that person has to also be available to work."

Comments made to Burn from industry representatives with projects in the North indicate that is not always the case, potentially jeopardizing future development, he said.

"The reason that disappoints me is it means that Northerners won't be in a position to benefit from the opportunities that are being brought in the future," he said.

Burn said his comments weren't meant as criticisms on the reliability of Northern workers, but that he did want to raise questions about the often conflicting values between practitioners of a traditional lifestyle and industry.

"The great challenge for the next 20 years is to find a way in which the necessary flexibility of a Northern culture can be accommodated in the context of increasing industrial presence," he said.

Carson Gillis, director of lands and resources for Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., said instances of workers failing to show up are often a function of bad timing.

"There's certain routines to exploration and mining and the part that would conflict the most is your early, grassroots exploration in the summer and that's when people would rather be home as opposed to the middle of nowhere," he said.

Gillis added there are other, more personal factors that often account for a person suddenly quitting, which is why most impact and benefit agreements signed with mining companies now include a provision for on-site counselling of distressed workers - but the onus remains on workers to seek help.

"It's a self-help system. It still requires that person to say, 'Hey, I've got a situation here. I'd like some counselling.' The person still has to want to change and want help."

The reality that not everyone desires a wage-based life is also important to note, according to the 2008 Nunavut economic outlook issued earlier this year by the Nunavut Economic Forum, a broad group of organizations with an interest in the territory's economic development.

"It is a simple truth that some Nunavummiut will be better suited to take advantage of the opportunities in the mining sector..." the report read. "Others will simply have no interest in participating."

Meadowbank, the Agnico-Eagle gold mine located 70 km north of Baker Lake, is slated to begin commercial production early next year, and approximately 140 of 300 Agnico-Eagle employees working on the construction site are from Baker Lake, Rankin Inlet, Whale Cove, Arviat and Repulse Bay, said Denis Gourde, Meadowbank general manager.

"For them, it's the first opportunity to have a long-term, permanent job and so far we've been very surprised," said Gourde. "Of course ... there are people that don't show up on the first day of work but eventually show up on the second or third, but it's better than we expected."

Added Gourde, "We're not in the position where we're saying, 'It's a desperate situation and we won't be able to do something.' It's really the other way around. With what we're seeing, there's a lot of good work and a lot of potential."