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IQALUIT
High school students will be trained for the mining industry, and two companies are joining the Nunavut Sealink and Supply partnership after the Nunavut Mining Symposium in Iqaluit.

Premier and Education Minister Eva Aariak, left, talks with Agnico-Eagle board chair Jim Nasso, right, while Dale Coffin, a company spokesman, looks on. - Jeanne Gagnon/NNSL photo

The April 16 to 19 event saw some 500 delegates and about 50 exhibitors from across the territory and the country gather in the territorial capital.

Kivalliq students will have the opportunity to better transition from high school to mining-related careers under a agreement between the territorial government and Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd., it was announced on April 18.

Mining is an integral part of the territory's future, Premier and Education Minister Eva Aariak said at the symposium.

"These are the exciting times for Nunavummiut," she said. "The mining interests is happening very fast and very much up here and we have to prepare our students to have that vision, that mining sector is also very much one of the possibilities they can get into."

The program's method of delivery has yet to be finalized, she said.

There are 42 heavy-duty mechanics working at Agnico-Eagle's Meadowbank mine but only two of them are Inuit, according to Graeme Dargo, superintendent of community engagement at Agnico-Eagle. He said the company wants as many Inuit filling those positions as possible, which has led to the partnership with the GN to develop a co-op program for high school students.

"We require a skilled labour force as we develop our projects in Nunavut. The way for us to get those from the North is to start training them," he said. "It really is about replacing the skilled labour we are dependent on right now, coming from southern Canada, with Northerners, with Inuit people. And there could be a range of opportunities, from welders to millwrights - literally hundreds of jobs."

David Ningeongan, president of the Kivalliq Inuit Association, said the agreement is good news.

"It's going to give our youth the vision of what is required for the workforce in the future to participate in the opportunities that come from these mining opportunities in Nunavut as a whole," he said.

A new partnership was announced during the symposium. Sakku Investments Corporation and Qikiqtaaluk Corporation are now shareholders of Nunavut Sealink and Supply Inc., thus enlarging the partnership. Arctic Co-operative Ltd. is the majority shareholder while Desgagnes Transarctik Inc. is the managing partner. QC and Sakku will each have a seat on the board of directors and a vote.

"It makes me, as the managing partner, have the nice feeling of happiness and pride because to me - this is a milestone for the future," said Waguih Rayes, general manager of Desgagnes Transartik Inc.

Rayes also said NSSI will start servicing the Kitikmeot and the Kivalliq regions under a five-year Government of Nunavut contract starting with the 2012 sealift season, an agreement still unannounced. He said the boats will come out of Montreal and reach Cambridge Bay, for instance, in 12 days.

"Of course, we expect our business will keep prospering. With this addition, we're going to have more shares of the market," he said.

Elizabeth Kingston, with the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines, said the symposium was at capacity for the number of delegates and have expanded the exhibition space for this year's symposium.

"We think it's actually been a huge success. We've gotten lots of really positive feedback from a variety of the delegates," she said. "We definitely expanded both on the social activities ... (and) on the technical portion of the program to allow for all the interest that is taking place, which is obviously concurrent with what's going on in terms of the industry involvement here in Nunavut."

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