Unemployment in Nunavut will drop: economist

Government of Nunavut economist expects more operating mines like Agnico-Eagle’s Meadowbank gold mine will create a “flood” of jobs in Nunavut. (FILE PHOTO)

More people in Nunavut are employed than ever before.

And that’s a trend which is likely to continue as more mining projects move into operation, said François Picotte, a senior economist with the Government of Nunavut.

More than 500 new jobs have been created in Nunavut since this time last year, bumping the territory’s unemployment rate down to 16.6 per cent – two percentage points lower than in the second quarter of 2010, the latest numbers from Statistics Canada reveal.

Most recent job creation in Nunavut is in large part due to the recent opening of Agnico-Eagle’s Meadowbank mine near Baker Lake. It’s the first of several mines expected to open across the territory.

Over the next few years, Picotte forecasts jobs in Nunavut to continue increasing at a rate of about five per cent each year.

“[The mining sector] has created a lot of jobs, and more are coming,” Picotte said. “We expect [unemployment] to be alleviated as more of these mines open.”

Picotte described Nunavut’s mining industry as a “flood” that has already begun in the Kivalliq region, and continues to ramp up in the Kitikmeot and Qikiqtani regions.

Once established, the mining sector has a multiplier effect, Picotte said, explaining that for every 100 mining jobs created, another 20 or so emerge in spin-off industries such as transportation or retail.

To maintain job growth, Picotte encourages Nunavummiut to study and acquire “as many skills as possible.”

That’s because the territory still has a fair amount of catch up to do; despite its job creation, Nunavut’s 16.6 per cent unemployment rate is still twice that of the 7.4 per cent national unemployment rate.

Picotte said that is due to a local workforce that lacks the skills to fill many of the territory’s jobs.

“There are certainly many unemployed people as we speak,” he said. “Nunavut is an emerging territory and it also has an emerging economy. But its rate of growth certainly brings hope for the future.”

To help Nunavummiut fill those jobs, the Kivalliq region has stepped up to offer job seekers the training they need to work in Nunavut’s mines.

That includes Arctic College’s new trades training school in Rankin Inlet.

There’s also the Kivalliq Mine Training Society, which has provided training support to more than 100 Nunavummiut with money from the Aboriginal Skills and Development Program.

But the fate of the organization rests on that federal funding, which is set to expire in 2012.

The society’s director, Kevin Bussey, has even called for the creation of a Nunavut-wide mine training society, given the projects set to open across the territory.