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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Growing up in Dettah fixing anything from bicycles to snowmobiles and motor vehicles, mechanics have always come naturally to Snap Lake Mine employee Louie Beaulieu.

Snap Lake Mine industrial mechanic Louie Beaulieu works on equipment that keeps the mine's process plant running, last week. - Thandiwe Vela/NNSL photo

Four years after getting his start as an apprentice at the diamond mine, which is also celebrating four years since starting production, 25-year-old Beaulieu is now a full-fledged industrial mechanic, serving as a role model to his family, friends, and community.

"They're proud of me, they think what I'm doing is really good," Beaulieu said last week, after wrapping up a 12-hour shift at the mine, located about 220 km northeast of Yellowknife. "I'm now a certified Red Seal journeyman mechanic. I'm just waiting for my Red Seal certificate in the mail."

Beaulieu works on hydraulic equipment, pumps, electric motors, turbines, power transmissions and a 1.3 km conveyor belt at Snap Lake, which moves kimberlite, or diamond-bearing rock, from the underground crusher to the process plant.

"I fix things," Beaulieu explains. "I work on stationary equipment like hydraulics, pumps, motors--anything that rotates needs maintenance here so pretty much everything you see here I work on."

Before being hired by De Beers Canada to work at the diamond mine, the Sir John Franklin High School graduate worked on the remediation of Giant Mine, but needed more money when his common law wife became pregnant with his son Dylan, who is now four-years-old.

Beaulieu has achieved his goals with a high-paying position at Snap Lake, and praises the mine for the opportunity.

"(The mine) is really beneficial to the community and the economy of the North," he said. "It employs so many aboriginal people and people in general from the North."

About 37 per cent of Snap Lake's 678 person-year workforce is from the NWT, according to De Beers Canada's 2011 figures, with 21 per cent, or 126 person-years, aboriginal.

The aboriginal workforce has fluctuated over the years along with the total workforce, ranging from 11 per cent to a high of 25 per cent in 2009.

De Beers faces stiff competition for skilled Northern labour from BHP Billiton's Ekati diamond mine and the Diavik Diamond Mine, which saw Northern resident employment of 54 per cent and 56 per cent in 2011, respectively.

"I'm glad the mines are here, employing a lot of people from the North," said Beaulieu, adding he has encouraged many of his friends to get into the trades, too.

He gives advice to friends and talks to children in the community where he grew up about how to get into the mining industry.

"It's a good place to be," he tells them. "You have lots of respect.

"I try to persuade them to come into the trade because I know how to get into it."

On his time off over the mine's two-week on two-week off rotation, Beaulieu enjoys sharing time with his family, going out on the land, boating, and snowmobiling, he said.

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