The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.
With the anticipated boom in the mining sector, industry leaders and organizations are taking steps to ensure the workforce is ready.
On Wednesday the North Superior Workforce Planning Board and the Thunder Bay Community Economic Development Committee hosted a forum that looked into some of the employment and training opportunities and challenges that exist in the mining sector in Northwestern Ontario.
More than 200 participants attended the forum. Among the participants were job seekers, mining companies, service providers, government representatives and educators, who discussed how the workforce can be prepared for expanding job opportunities in the mining sector.
Madge Richardson, executive director of North Superior Workforce Planning Board, said the forum was also an opportunity to release a report on the region’s mining industry employment forecasts for the next two, five and 10 years.
One important topic that came up for discussion on Wednesday examined what needs to be done to prepare the workforce for jobs in the sector, including retraining and education.
“We need to decide how to address the huge training demand for the workforce to be prepared to go into mining,” Richardson said.
One of the ways to accomplish that is with the help of schools, like colleges and universities, but Richardson said youth need to be introduced to the world of mining at a younger age.
“There is more and more interest now at the high school level, and even elementary level, to introduce children to mining and the whole mining sector,” she said.
“What are the operations all about, what are the benefits of working there, and what kind of knowledge and training do you need?”
Richardson added that by introducing children at a younger age to mining, they can start choosing the right training and educational paths for potential jobs in the sector.
“That is the only way we will have a prepared workforce, is if all of the groups involved and interested in workforce development get together at the table,” she said.
Frank Pullia, co-chairman of business with the North Superior Workforce Planning Board, said there will be a variety of jobs opening up in the mining sector.
“Some people have a misconception that mining is only going underground,” Pullia said.
“There is a host of other jobs in terms of technical skills, professionals, security . . . it’s not just about going underground and mining the resources. There are many other job opportunities.”
According to Pullia, 60 per cent of potential jobs come directly from mining, while 30 to 40 per cent come from related services.
He added that there is an available workforce in the region, coming largely from the struggling forestry sector.
However, that means many people will require retraining.
“The trick is going to be to identify the supply,” Pullia said. “We know there are many people that used to work in forestry that will need to be retrained.”
“We are building a foundation for an economic base that can last into the future and affect the whole economy,” he added.
The report on mining industry employment and hiring forecasts for the region is available on the North Superior Workforce Planning Board website at www.nswpb.ca.