Qualified Inuk can’t get job with Inuit-owned Nunavut Construction Corp.

I am a journeyman carpenter. I have 16 years of work experience within our territory.

I have worked for a few establishments within Nunavut as a carpenter. I started out as an apprentice with Nunavut Construction Corp. and I worked for the firm as a journeyman after I got certified.

I have been writing to the person who does the hiring of trades people with the firm since 2009, only to get the same response every time. He tells me that the company is slow and work will resume after the boat has arrived with the material. I would write in advance anticipating the arrival of material and I let the guy know that I am available immediately and I leave my contact information with him every time I write.

The last couple of responses I got from him told me that there is work in other communities and that I could be hired if I happened to be in one those communities.

He has not offered to bring me to these communities at all as he does with bringing in southern workers. It is easier for his father in-law to come up from Nova Scotia to work as a cleaning hand than it is for a certified person like myself to work for the firm.

The firm has a few certified Inuit within their structure, but most Inuit hired are not certified and they only do labour work or the work that the southerners do not like to do!

As a certified carpenter, I voice my concerns with work-related matter when I feel that I need to correct the situation. Some of my opinions do not go well with the decision-makers and it is used as an excuse to label me a bad person or worker!

I have tried to let the right people within the group of owners know of this situation only to be ignored and shrugged away. They tell me that these people are making money for the company and I should just move out of the way and let them carry on.

I decided that I should write this letter for the public to voice their own opinions or even relate to my matter so that the right leaders will read and hopefully correct the situation.

I hope that immediate profit doesn’t stop Inuit from getting hired because that is what NCC is doing!

(Name withheld by request)
Cape Dorset

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