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To facilitate greater employment participation, VBNC trained three Innu and four Inuit in career counselling skills in the fall of 2002. These aboriginal career advisers have since presented community and school information sessions and provided one-on-one counselling sessions to over 400 potential employees.
Training was also a high priority. Working in partnership with Innu Nation, LIA and Labrador Métis Nation, and with the support of the federal government, VBNC established an innovative training organization, Joint Voisey’s Bay Employment and Training Authority (JETA). JETA will oversee the development of a comprehensive human resource development plan, aimed at facilitating the employment of Labrador Inuit, Innu and Métis during the construction and operational phases of the company’s mining activities. VBNC additionally delivered on-site training and sponsored training programs at the College of the North Atlantic in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
Our efforts have met with marked success. At the peak of the construction program in 2003, over 30 per cent of employees working at our Voisey’s Bay site were members of LIA and Innu Nation.
We have been similarly successful in encouraging aboriginal companies to explore business opportunities presented by the project. In 2002, all of the contracts awarded at the site went to Innu and Inuit joint venture businesses. This included companies involved in operations ranging from civil construction to support services such as catering and airline services.
In September 2003, VBNC announced it had awarded a three-year Cdn. $140 million civil construction contract to IKC/Borealis to support its mine and concentrator construction program. IKC/Borealis is a joint venture between Innu Development Limited Partnership, Peter Kiewit Canada Ltd., Labrador Construction Ltd. of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, H.J. O'Connell Ltd. of Labrador City and Torngait Services Ltd. of Nain.
“Over 60 per cent of our contracts, with a value of Cdn. $290 million, have been awarded to aboriginal companies,” says Phil du Toit, VBNC's Managing Director. “This is a significant achievement that will result in considerable benefits flowing to Innu and Inuit over the next few years as we prepare for operations.”
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