Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement I talked about the socio-economic agreements that our government has with the three diamond mines. I'd like to ask the Minister of ITI questions on that. Does the government have any way of holding the diamond mines to account for employment targets set out in the socio-economic agreements? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, the government of the Northwest Territories oversees the implementation of the socio-economic agreements and coordinates the Government efforts under each SEA while monitoring how well each developer carries out its respective responsibilities. I think the mines are very accountable for their respective SEAs. Through the environmental assessment process or the regulatory process, the Government of the Northwest Territories, when the first diamond mine was established, pushed for socio-economic agreements that came out as a recommendation from the environmental assessment process. Every mining project that has gone forward requires socio-economic agreements, so we have to go through that process. The socio-economic agreements have evolved over time from the first one that was negotiated with BHP and Ekati, which essentially their only reporting was to this Legislative Assembly. However, our government holds annual meetings with senior officials from all the mines that have socio-economic agreements. All socio-economic agreements have dispute resolution clauses and requirements for public reporting. The mines produce an annual report documenting their progress in achieving socio-economic agreement commitments and these are made public. Also, ITI publishes annual results in their Communities and Diamonds reports. Community meetings are also held to communicate results. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I represent a constituency that is over 90 per cent Aboriginal, and I would like to know if there's anything specific in the socio-economic agreements between the government and the diamond mines that hold the diamond mines accountable for the employment of Aboriginal people at the diamond mine. I recognize that the socio-economic agreement does cover the northern/Aboriginal employment, but I'm particularly interested in how the government will hold the diamond mines accountable for the employment targets for Aboriginal people.
We've taken a number of different approaches to it. Most of the mining companies that are operating in the Northwest Territories are very large companies that stake their reputation on achieving the targets that they've negotiated. We use a process of publishing the reports. Where those targets are not being met, we follow up with meetings. Certainly in the first instance when there was difficulty meeting targets, the diamond companies came to meet with us to find, well, why weren't we producing more students that could meet the academic requirements that could be streamed into trades or so on that could go to work at the diamond mines, and we certainly looked at that. We also set up a number of different processes where we could work with the mining companies to find ways that we could have more northern and Aboriginal employees. We also looked at: how do we deal with fly in/fly out workers. We have a number of processes. It's a very difficult area. Obviously mine safety comes to mind. You also need people with the requisite skills to do the jobs. Also, there are other factors that come into play to make sure that you have a very sustainable mine that pays very strict adherence to mine safety.
The Minister sort of answered parts of the third question, but to be very clear and focused, I would like to ask the Minister what the mines have identified as the key reasons for failing to meet the target of hiring Aboriginal employees at the diamond mines?
I think we have to remember that the mines, especially the diamond mines, have had a very positive impact on our northern workforce with over 20,000 person-years employed. However, we are constantly working to improve this. The mines and ourselves know that there are a number of factors that contribute, such as low commodity prices and the financial markets. The mines have to match revenues and expenditures. What they have indicated is we have a very small workforce; they have a very small pool to draw from. Consequently the more mines we have, the less ability they have to hire northern Aboriginal workers. They’re robbing Peter to pay Paul, kind of thing, where you have the phenomenon of people moving from mine to mine, yet it’s the same people. The inventory is not growing larger. The safety issue is paramount; also they have very strict requirements in flying in and flying out, two weeks in and two weeks out, or the management, those that work four and three. Essentially, those are the areas. Also they are limited to pick-up points. There are only so many pick-up points that have been negotiated. They would like to hire more across the Northwest Territories, but for example most of the socio-economic agreements don't have provisions for the mines to pay for employees outside the pick-up communities. For example, some mines are paying close to $200,000 to fly in workers from outside their area, and they are saying, “well, it's not in our socio-economic agreement, and we're doing it but we can't continue to do it as the diamond prices go down.” Those are the things that we're faced with, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Those are good responses. I believe that it seems to be an issue of the skills of the workforce. What are the mines and the department doing to develop a workforce, an NWT Aboriginal workforce, as per the workforce development agreement inside the socio-economic agreement?
The Government of the Northwest Territories works hard to bring awareness to the significant benefits that mineral exploration, mine operations and processing can bring to people. The Government of the Northwest Territories through our Department of Education, Culture and Employment is working with the mines to support them in meeting their northern hiring targets. This includes connecting the mines with students, promoting employment opportunities throughout the Northwest Territories by working with and supporting the mines as they undertake regional and community recruitment initiatives, supporting regional and community training opportunities to prepare residents for employment with the mines, and providing labour market funding to the mines to train employees for advancement. The Skills 4 Success initiative is working a four-year action plan. Other examples include the Northern Leadership Development Program administered through Aurora College, which provides employees with leadership skills to prepare for management, supervisory or leadership positions. The mines have policies for priority selection for training and employment opportunities, as well as dedicated Aboriginal training investments through partnerships with impacted Aboriginal groups. They collaborate with other GNWT and federal governments. They also leverage training funding for a qualified northern workforce. They work with resource developers, the Mine Training Society and other stakeholders, including Aboriginal governments, to ensure that our local workforce is ready and prepared for the opportunities of the future. The success of the NWT Mine Training Society in capacity building has provided 1,900 individual Northerners with training and/or career counselling and has placed over 830 students in jobs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
