Inuvik businesses trying to keep pace with growth
Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services
Inuvik (Apr 23/01) - Inuvik wants willing workers.
The awakening oil and gas boom in the Inuvik area has opened the flood gates for southern workers looking for all kinds of employment slots but they haven't arrived yet.
"It is difficult for us," said Vince Brown, financial officer for the Mackenzie Delta Hotel Group.
"There are not enough people to fill the jobs in town which simply means people from the south need to come up."
But he said that is a small price to pay for the increase in business Inuvik hotels have seen over the past year.
Brown said he has been somewhat successful in pulling up workers from the south to fill every position from housekeeping to front desk staff at the four main Inuvik hotels.
"But we still need more employees."
Gregg Hill at the regional department of education, culture and employment said it appears that the number of persons in need of assistance is down.
"I don't see nearly as many (recipients) as the last months," he said.
Hill said the case worker in Tuktoyaktuk averages about 90 to 110 recipients per month but in March that dropped to 37 or 38.
Hill expects an increase in welfare rates when the exploration season ends because many workers may not have accumulated enough hours to obtain employment benefits.
Exploration dipped deepest into the general labour workforce and caused Ross Weitzel, general manager of Weitzel Construction, to raise wages to keep key employees.
"I matched what the oil companies pay them," Weitzel said, explaining that increased salaries to $50 from $45 per hour" for journeymen tradesmen. Construction labourers get up to $18 an hour.
"We just had a couple key people we did not want to lose ... Once the economy is on the way up you can afford to pay a little better and so can the customer."
