Infrastructure boom creates work opportunities for Nunavummiut
Lack of certification shouldn’t be barrier to employment for a skilled worker, says educator
A work crew with Arctic Fresh Projects lays rebar on the foundation for the Nunavut Recovery Centre in Iqaluit. The majority of the dowelled foundation for the recovery centre was laid out and installed by skilled but uncertified Inuit tradespeople. (Photo courtesy of Evan Schellenberg)
As Nunavut tackles a shortage of housing and other infrastructure, trades positions are opening up across the territory — but there aren’t enough Nunavummiut who are certified tradespeople to do all the work.
“Contractors do bring skilled tradespeople and journeypeople into the territory from southern Canada because Nunavut is currently unable to meet the demand,” said Tina Rose, communications manager with the Department of Family Services.
A trades apprenticeship certificate program operated by Family Services provides a wage subsidy to Nunavut employers to hire registered apprentices. In 2024, there were 156 registered Nunavummiut apprentices and 57 businesses engaged in that program including construction, automotive/heavy equipment, mining, energy and defense.
The hope is to train enough Nunavummiut that companies no longer have to import workers from the south.
“For specialized trades, such as electricians, plumbers and oil burner mechanics, efforts are made to hire locally whenever possible,” said Alexandria Webb, senior communications officer with the Nunavut Housing Corp.
“When hiring locally is not feasible, skilled tradespeople are brought in from other areas across Canada to ensure the necessary expertise is available.”
Joseph Uttak, left, and Jona Haulli work on Aqqusariaq, the Nunavut Recovery Centre in Iqaluit, as members of the work crew with Arctic Fresh Projects. (Photo courtesy of Evan Schellenberg)
Nunavut Housing Corp. is building 1,400 public housing units as part of Nunavut 3000, launched in October 2022 by the Government of Nunavut with a target to build 3,000 new housing units of all types across the territory by the end of 2030.
Meanwhile, local tradespeople cannot fill the demand for skilled workers needed to maintain already existing homes in Nunavut.
“Certifications are a barrier to employment,” said Albert Netser, dean of construction trades at Nunavut Arctic College.
He said that creating more opportunities for workers who are skilled but lack certification would produce a generation of role models who would inspire the new generation entering the workforce to get their certifications.
The college offers programs in carpentry, electrical, plumbing, oil heat system technician and housing maintenance at its Sanatuliqsarvik Nunavut Trades Training Centre in Rankin Inlet.
“I understand the importance of certification, due to insurance and ensuring that the construction is built to specs,” Netser said. “But we do have people who aren’t certified who understand all the blueprint reading, all the standard codes, all these things because they’ve been in the field for 20 or 30 years and they’ve built houses.”
Netser points to the model adopted by Arctic Fresh Group, an Inuit-owned, Igloolik-based company currently building Aqqusariaq, the Nunavut Recovery Centre in Iqaluit, as a way to avoid sidelining uncertified skilled workers.
Most of the dowelled foundation for the recovery centre was laid out and installed by uncertified but skilled Inuit tradespeople, said Evan Schellenberg, general manager with Arctic Fresh.
Overall, the foundation consists of roughly 220 tons of reinforcing steel that was installed by 11 Inuit workers, or about one-quarter of the entire work crew.
Some other projects built by the company in Igloolik have used 100 per cent Inuit employment, including trades workers, site superintendent, project co-ordinator and project manager, Schellenberg said.
The company’s ongoing Sakku School addition and renovation in Coral Harbour has an Inuit employment rate of 64 per cent.
By training workers on the job, Netser said, Arctic Fresh is building local skill capacity with each new project.
“It can be a boom just based on producing good work ethics, producing not only tradespeople but administrators, and providing this opportunity to them and learning their skills and attitude, and their gifts and their talents,” said Netser.
“We would be creating the greatest workforce Nunavut has ever seen.”
forgive my ignorance, but if there are all these skilled but uncertified workers out there, can they not take a proficiency exam or challenge the exams that would normally be required at the end of a lengthy program?
zero sarcasm here.
if people have these skills then legitimize their experience and knowledge and get them certified.
or create some type of marginally lesser accreditation and identify clear steps and pathways to fast track getting fully certified.
Seems completely reasonable to me. We allow it in many industries and practices when moving internationally.
In order to become certified a person must successfully pass the certification exams.
One can definitely challenge the exams after having achieved the required amount of work hours but trust me its not something that every trades person can do. They can be somewhat challenging.
As Albert mentioned the “insurance factor” is the driving force behind being certified because unfortunately we live in a world of liability. If no one could be held accountable when someone is electrocuted or a building falls down, burns or floods then it wouldn’t matter.
I wonder if the college is aware of the liability issues associated with using uncertified workers? If a foundation fails or a building burns due to an electrical issue, the company that used uncertified workers for that work would be on the hook for the all costs associated with fixing the issue not to mention that any and all insurance on the building is automatically null and void when uncertified workers are used to complete tasks that require certification. This plan is just plain short sighted
The article mentions the insurance liabilities. No one is saying that certified workers shouldn’t be employed; the point made in the article is that certification shouldn’t be a barrier to employment and on-the-job-training.
Too many companies claim there aren’t enough certified workers in NU so they bring people from the south. Instead, they should be committed to training locally to create the skills needed. No one is saying construction should be done without certified tradespeople.
Amaruq, apprentices are considered certified if they are overseen on the jobsite by a someone who is certified. Why not make these folks apprentices? Using uncertified workers on a job site even of they are managed by the certified tradesperson is massive and unnecessary risk
That’s a great question, and in my opinion, the CORRECT question that needs to be addressed.
The first hurdle is the trades entrance exam. A lot of it is a language barrier. Won’t get into the content issues in this comment section. Why are we using Alberta as our guiding body? We should be able to have a Nunavut board instead.
A larger issue is our geography. Many tradespeople have young families and don’t want to move to Rankin for school. That discourages them from entering the apprenticeship program. Why can’t we use remote learning in such a huge territory? During COVID when all the schools were closed, trades schools in the south did virtual trades school. If we could allow it then, why isn’t it allowed in Nunavut? The answer is that Alberta doesn’t allow it. Makes no sense.
I agree with you Northern Guy, let’s remove these dumb rules that keeps people from being apprentices and let’s take our own trades education into our own hands.
This argument is used also with the local law school cohort – almost every single student failed the bar exam. Instead of blaming the program or the students, they blame the test. I get not every test is relevant for competency, but this is a great example of people touting experience and grit over literal knowledge competence. No, I don’t want my house inspected by a guy who was around 20 years vs a guy who passed the test and was around 20 years. I don’t want my doctor doing surgery if they got a D. I don’t want my legal aid lawyer to be the bottom of the class and only licensed because the government and law society had political pressure to get everyone licensed or otherwise the whole program was a failure.
Sure!
Why not?
Everything from the top of government on down in this Territory is run by people who are totally unqualified.
The disastrous results speak for themselves.
Northern guy, do you even live in Nunavut, there are lots of young people unemployed in nu they just have to be given a chance, your attitude is the same as every southerner who comes north, the local housing associations, have qualified Inuit journeymen that constantly repair and maintain anywhere from 50tp 400 units safely. And most have training programs. and this insurance is issue is just a way to put a roadblock in front of people to not be employed.and on the safety side Nunavut has now crippled itself with these southern experts, building inspectors, electrical inspectors, boiler inspectors. Workers safety inspectors that it’s to the point northern contractors cannot build because of delay costs, but let’s bring in contractors from Manitoba. Rankin inlet airport 1 example that fly their own airplanes, bring in their own camps, fly in their own food, and toilet paper, and train no one.and they are not held accountable, all the money flows back south. Northern guy you sound like a typical southerner, that has no stake in contributing to Nunavut look at NCC and AEM, and LHOS they at least try. Go away with your civil servant attitude
How to recieve training