Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Mar 29/00) - "You'd rather be working than not working."

That's the attitude held by Dennis Moraff, a former Giant miner who recently completed a training course in hopes of securing new employment.

"You can't live up here without working today. It's only been six months, but it seems like six years."

Moraff worked at Giant mine for 14 years before becoming one of the more than 200 casualties of layoffs in October at the bankrupt mine. He has only worked one day since then, but he hopes to obtain a job in Fort Liard in April.

Moraff recently completed a one-week course, Oil and Gas Awareness, Safety Certification and Local Cultural Awareness, which was put on by NWT Community Mobilization Partnership and the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

The course offered instruction in St. John's Ambulance/CPR; WHMIS (Workplace Hazardous Material Information System); transportation of dangerous goods; hydrogen sulfide; confined space rescue; and chainsaw safety.

"It was a good course. Most of the guys learned stuff from it," Moraff said.

About 27 ex-Giant miners took part in the course.

Since being laid off Moraff has spent a lot of time at the Giant Mine Transition Centre set up around the time of the layoffs.

"Most of the guys who've used it found it helpful, because they know the guys that are around," Moraff said. "It's helped that everybody's in the same boat."

Moraff said he's seen a lot of fellow Giant miners leave town.

"My wife's working and myself, I can hang out, stay around and hopefully find something within town. That's the plan. If not, I'll be down the road, down the Mackenzie like the rest of them, as soon as the summer comes," he said.

"I've been up here since '84. It's just not that easy to make tracks."