Raglan Mine figures continue to disappoint

The Inuit employment figures at Nunavik’s Raglan mine are still well below the 20 per cent sought when the Raglan Agreement was signed 10 years ago.

The Raglan Agreement, a benefits agreement signed between Nunavik and Falconbridge Ltd. in 1995, included a complex pay-off scheme worth at least $75 million to Nunavimmiut over the mine’s 20 year lifetime, but jobs were always considered to be the nickel mine’s real bonus for the region.

The Raglan mine now has 15.5 per cent Inuit workers, or 82 out of 527 employees. The joint venture companies working on the mine site don’t fare much better: Kattiniq Transport has no Inuit among its 15 employees, Bradley Nuvumiut has four Inuit out of 40 and Kiewet Nuvumiut has 11 out of 41 employees.

The overall figure for Inuit employment at Raglan is 15.5 per cent – or 97 out of 623 employees, according to figures supplied by Paul Ohituk, the KRG’s Raglan project officer.