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Daniel Bland is lead instructor for the Eeyou Mining Skills Enhancement Program, an initiative of Cree Human Resources Development, in Mistissini, Quebec.
While economists and labour market researchers agree one of Canada’s greatest challenges over the next decade will be how to solve skilled worker shortages, there seems to be no consensus about just how to do that.
The skills shortage will be particularly acute all across northern Canada, where natural resource development and mining projects are projected to grow the northern economy over 90 per cent from 2011 to 2020. Led by northern B.C.’s mining output, which will increase by a whopping 300 per cent, that is more than four times the growth rate forecast for the Canadian economy over that same period.
And while that is good news on many fronts, the fact that many of the largest mining projects are close to remote First Nation communities without particularly well skilled or educated populations, is cause for growing concern. Our work in essential skills assessment and training for mining jobs with the James Bay Cree First Nation in northwestern Quebec has taught us some valuable lessons about what employers can do to maximize human resources in remote aboriginal communities.