Charlie Lyall: drugs and booze destroy Inuit job training efforts at Doris North gold mine

Here’s Charlie Lyall’s message: stay away from drugs and alcohol and get an education. Otherwise, the efforts of Kitikmeot Corp., which is responsible for developing Inuit business and job opportunities in the Kitikmeot, will stall, he said. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

CAMBRIDGE BAY— A combination of drug and alcohol use and a lack of higher education are crippling the Kitikmeot Corp.’s training and employment efforts, KC president Charlie Lyall said Oct. 4 at the Kitikmeot Inuit Association’s annual general meeting in Cambridge Bay.

Before beneficiaries from the Kitikmeot region may participate in mining training programs for work in KC’s subsidiaries or get a job at Newmont’s Doris North gold mine, they have to take drug tests.

These test can reveal whether someone has smoked marijuana for up to two months before the test is administered.

Drug test failures meant only four of 40 applicants recently qualified for a Horizon North training program in Kamloops, B.C..

The drug and alcohol zero tolerance policies weren’t invented by KC, Lyall said — but their strict enforcement, and growing levels of substance abuse in the region, is causing problems now, he said.

Drug and alcohol use, along with a lack of higher education, means the regional birthright corporation is struggling to raise levels of Inuit employment in its own companies and at mining operations, Lyall said.

At some of its subsidiaries, like MediNorth, no beneficiaries are employed because there are no Inuit doctors, nurses or other health professionals.

In other companies, which mainly rely on heavy equipment operators, the number of beneficiary workers stands at 66 per cent.

But drug and alcohol use isn’t the only hurdle facing KC, Lyall said.

“We’re having hard time finding Inuit educated enough to train,” he told the AGM, urging youth to “go as high as you can get” in their education.

If any youth want to aim for managerial positions in KC-owned companues, Lyall said KC will help them.

Lyall also fended off criticism from Cambridge Bay’s board member Attima Hadlari that KC itself doesn’t hire enough Inuit based in the Kitikmeot.

“I think Inuit can do the job with less cost of travelling to the region,” he said.

Of KC’s three full-time employees, only one lives in Cambridge Bay. Another works in Alberta on a contract basis on human resources. None, apart from Lyall, are Inuit.

“As much as I would like to have more Inuit,” Lyall said he can’t do more because he can’t find Inuit who can do the job.

If he could, “I’d hire them in a heartbeat,” he added.

Lyall said youth need to stay in school, finish their Grade 12 or higher, and then not expect to be handed a job.

“We need education,” Lyall told the AGM.

The “day of the hammer is over” and Inuit need to learn the new skills required, he said.