Nunavik Inuit employment good at regional government, but lagging at Raglan nickel mine

KUUJJUAQ — According to statistics tabled at the recent Kativik Regional Government council meeting, the KRG is holding its own with respect to Inuit employment:

• of the KRG’s total workforce of 330 employees in Nunavik, 60 per cent, or 198, are Inuit, and 40 per cent, or 132, are non-Inuit;

• of the KRG’s 56 managers, 29 per cent are Inuit and 71 per cent are non-Inuit; and,

• of KRG transportation department’s 56 employees, 79 per cent are Inuit and 21 per cent are non-Inuit.

The KRG department with the lowest percentage of Inuit employees remains the Kativik Regional Police Force.

Of its 77 employees, only five per cent are Inuit, while 95 per cent are non-Inuit.

That’s down from May 2011, when nine per cent were Inuit, while 91 per cent were non-Inuit.

Meanwhile Inuit employment at Xstrata still lags.

About 13 per cent of workers at the Xstrata Raglan mine site are Inuit. according to figures tabled at the recent KRG meeting.

In June, there were 144 Inuit workers, or 17.1 per cent, out of a total workforce of 842 at the mine.

That percentage was lower at the various joint-venture companies doing work at the nickel mine site. Those percentages ranged from 11.8 per cent at the Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau Quebec to five per cent at Kattiniq Transport. There were no Inuit employed at JS Redpath.

A four-year, $28-million project to bring Inuit into the mine ended in March 31, 2012, after having involved 873 Inuit.

The goal was to train at least 200 Inuit to staff at least 70 long-term jobs at the mine.