Company celebrates 20 years of recruiting northern workers
Bullitt Staffing Inc. director shares ideas on how to retain northern staff
Dave Kennedy, founding director of Toronto-based Bullitt Staffing Inc., celebrates 20 years in the North with a dab pose in Pond Inlet earlier this year. He says a bowling alley, more pool tables and sidewalks in Iqaluit would make his company’s job easier by retaining specialized northern workers. (Photo courtesy of Dave Kennedy/Bullit Staffing Inc.)
After two decades of recruiting staff for northern companies, the founding director of Bullitt Staffing Inc. has a few ideas about retention.
“Sidewalks would be fantastic to encourage people to walk more,” said Dave Kennedy, the founding director of the Toronto-based company and its six Nunavut-based subsidiaries.
He also thinks a little recreation — like a bowling alley — could help encourage people to put down roots in Iqaluit’s tundra.
“There just aren’t many leisure opportunities for people, and that comes down to quality of life,” he said. “There’s one pool hall.”
Established in 2006, Bullitt recruits mechanics, electricians, planners and labourers to work throughout the territory.
Inuit who Bullitt recruit fill positions that include bear and environmental monitors, apprentices, helpers, warehouse technicians and equipment operators.
“Over the years, we’ve built up an extensive list of Inuit in the communities who are seeking employment,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy originally established Bullitt Staffing to help plug staffing gaps in southern Ontario’s nuclear and engineering sectors. The company pivoted north in 2015 by servicing Baffinland Iron Mines Corp., which had started to produce iron out of its Mary River mine on north Baffin Island the previous year.
Baffinland is the largest private sector employer of Inuit in the region.
One of Bullitt’s subsidiaries is Iqaluit-based Bullitt Maintenance Services Inc., which specializes in real estate development across the territory. Another one is Halu Travel, registered in 2019 as an Iqaluit-based, Inuit-owned travel agency. It provides 24-seven assistance for Nunavut businesses that have employees travelling through the North.
“We’ve managed travel into and out of every community in Nunavut, and we’re really proud of that,” Kennedy said.
Bullitt also maintains regional staffing agencies in Rankin Inlet (Bullitt Kivalliq Ltd.) and in Cambridge Bay (Bullitt Kitikmeot Inc.).
Meanwhile, Kennedy teased that his company is “evaluating a development” near the new $34-million Pond Inlet Research and Training Centre, but declined to provide details about it. The centre is scheduled to accept students this fall.
Unlike most specialized workers that the company recruits, Bullitt is staying in the Arctic.
“We plan to continue to operate in Nunavut and Northwest Territories,” Kennedy said. “We’re excited for the future.”
Is this a paid advertisement? Genuine question. Because somebody appears to have forgotten the “Sponsored Content” label. 😂
Maybe next week we can look forward to “Congratulations to Bob’s Plumbing on 15 Years of Serving the North” in the editorial section, be great if it included a coupon or something lol
I’m not surprised in the least, with all the contractors gouging the north and refusing to hire Inuit you would expect to see an occasional story about it on Nunatsiaq, but it’s crickets cause that would require actual journalism.
Instead we get a paid promotional post talking about how what Iqaluit really needs is a bowling alley. Tone deaf doesn’t even begin to describe it.
A great milestone and a testament to the relationships built over the years. Wishing the team continued success in the North.
This here is a major problem in Nunavut, these consultants who help design how things work in Nunavut recruiting to keep it this way, so much money is used up by our government in this system that’s used. The system used is designed to keep it this way, yet we wonder why it’s not working in Nunavut, but let’s celebrate this moment of recruitment.
So he’s the reason why BIM’s Inuit employment rates are the way they are? This group handles transportation planning for all the southern staff.
Over the last 20 years the mines Inuit employment have never been good at all