I wanted a career not a job": First Nations employment in the construction of the Lower Mattagami River Project (original) (raw)
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I was staying with my friend Marcel, a former Band Council manager, and his 10year-old granddaughter Maya in the Innu village of Sheshatshiu in Labrador, Canada. Over bowls of caribou stew we talk about the Muskrat Falls dam. Marcel looks after Maya while her mother works two week shifts at the construction site. I ask Maya what she thinks of the dam. "It destroys nature. The trees are cut down with chainsaws, the river is now like quicksand. It sucks you down." she stridently tells me. "But, does it affect you?" I reply. "Yes, because my Mom works there. If she quits, she won't have any work and can't support us…but when she's away I miss her a lot." A few days later we drive along the paved highway adjacent to the dam site, which is not open to the public and photography there is banned. We can see the gouged-out granite hillsides near the highway. Rock has been drilled out and broken down for boulders to support the banks diverting the floodwater. Vast undulating straight lines of clear-cut spruce stumps give the transmission lines a wide berth. New cabins belonging to Euro-Canadian settlers are fanning out from the industrial hub of Goose Bay. Clean trucks and snowmobiles are in the driveways. There is a sense that the Innu are being replaced. No one has much to say.
Women's Studies International Forum, 2023
This paper identifies barriers and opportunities that Indigenous women in Canada face in energy, mining, and forest sector employment through a review of scholarly and practitioner literature published between 2000 and 2022, and 10 in-depth interviews conducted between May and August 2021 with Indigenous women working in various capacities within (or knowledgeable about) natural resources industries in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. Our findings reveal that it is important to understand the intersections of gender, culture, ethnicity/race, language, and class to respond to the challenges Indigenous women face in natural resources employment. Some of the barriers that Indigenous women encounter in these industries are similar to those faced by non-Indigenous women (glass ceilings, lack of mentors, for example). Indigenous women encounter the added dimension of racism (based on Indigenous status) as well as limitations based on geographic location. Our recommendations for improving the status of Indigenous women in natural resources industries in Canada include implementing specific targets for Indigenous women in professional, technical, and senior administrative positions; enabling the Native Women's Association of Canada to serve as an information and employment conduit to industry associations and employers; and creating mechanisms to enable Indigenous women who live off-reserve to access quality employment opportunities. Enabling Indigenous women to access skilled, well-paid employment in natural resources should be considered a key priority and opportunity for governments, resource development companies, industry associations and gender equality advocacy organizations.
2012
The Nord-du-Québec region has a potential of significant socio-economic development for which growth can be anticipated. In 2008, the Charest Government initiated the Plan Nord with the objective of developing the economy of the Northern Québec regions in a responsible and sustainable manner. Such a project implies that there are significant challenges with regard to education, as well as employee attraction and retention. This report, requested under a joint initiative of the Commission scolaire de la Baie-James and the Cree School Board, is aiming at four objectives: (1) identify the needs and preferences of the Crees from Eeyou Istchee with regard to education and technical training related to the mining, construction, forest and energy sectors, as well as to the land-based employment and activities; (2) place these needs in the current socio-economic and demographic environment; (3) weigh up the socio-economic viability of said training and employment areas; and, finally, (4) probe the Crees’ attitude towards the various job opportunities and the employability alternatives available in their region. Our study is based on interviews conducted in June and July 2010, as well as on a review of potential socio-economic development avenues in Northern Québec. In a broader manner, we tried to highlight the anthropology dimension of training Crees, especially in taking into account parameters such as the mobility on the territory, the hazards related to the training location and duration, and the challenges of the Crees’ lack of schooling regarding major projects such as the ones put forward by the Plan Nord. We acknowledge many facts. First, it is difficult for most Crees to get the necessary academic prerequisites (Secondary IV or V) for some training programs that are currently offered to them, which prevents them from accessing courses leading to qualification. Given this situation, the Crees find it extremely difficult to persevere in a DVS type of system, which is considered as restricting. Also, the Crees’ low schooling rate and their difficulties with the language of instruction delay and, in some cases, compromise the arrival of youth aged 15 to 24 on the job market. Finally, the Crees are highly affected by the on-going decrease in the number of people who practice hunting, fishing, trapping, harvesting and native arts and crafts activities, which are crucial for the Cree culture. This study highlights the necessity to implement school programs (RAC, STC or DVS types) that would promote courses leading to qualification that could both meet the identified needs and increase the second language literacy level of the Crees. The Crees seem to be particularly interested in the land-based employment and activities (tourism, hunting, fishing, trapping, harvesting, native arts and crafts, as well as management and conservation of wildlife and flora) sector and in the construction, mining and forest industries. Besides targeting some technical jobs from the mining sector that could be the subject of customized training programs, we have also considered the occupations of environmental officer, mining explorer, carpenter-joiner and silvicultural worker because we believe these fields allow us to tie technical and traditional knowledge together.