‘Hub of the North’ unlikely launch pad
Focus on resource development key as road to re-election begins in Hay River
PM, on road to ’15 election, looks to a bold mining future while in Hay River, N.W.T., population 3,648,
As campaign launch pads go, it would be difficult to find one less likely than this low-slung, sprawling agglomeration of bungalows and shops clinging to the south shore of Great Slave Lake, on the southern fringe of the northern wilderness.
Hay River’s one sports bar, two grocery stores, hardware store, arena and weathered town hall have not seen the circus of a prime ministerial visit before and, quite likely, never will again.
But there it is: From this isolated outpost, more than a thousand kilometres and 12 hours’ drive north of Red Deer, Alta., Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s plan to win a fourth term and join the pantheon of Canada’s longest-serving leaders will unfold as night follows day. At least, that must be his hope — as his government places unprecedented emphasis on boosting economic growth in a territory whose entire population would fit inside one small central Ontario city.
Hay River, population 3,648, is, quite literally, the end of the line — the northernmost point in the North American continental rail network and the departure point to all parts northward. The village bills itself “The Hub of the North.” It is also, as of Tuesday, the epicentre of a Conservative plan to train an aboriginal workforce to match the growing need for skilled workers in the burgeoning northern mining industry.
Speaking in the town’s community centre, dolled up for the occasion with the now requisite blue backdrop and massive Canadian flag, Harper unveiled $5.8 million in new federal funding over two years to launch a 25-month mining training program aimed at aboriginal workers. The money, which will flow through Employment and Social Development Canada’s Skills and Partnership Fund, is to be administered by the Northwest Territories Mine Training Society — an agency that, ironically, had its federal funding reduced in 2012. The new program’s goal is to help 400 students from 11 communities across the Northwest Territories and Nunavut acquire “essential mining skills.”
The PM and his wife, Laureen, Environment Minister Leona Aglukkaq, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Bernard Valcourt and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver were on hand to show the flag. Northwest Territories Premier Bob McLeod spoke after the prime minister.
The message: The far North is a vast repository of priceless mineral resources, waiting to be harvested.
But Northerners must share in the wealth. Quoting Lord Tweedsmuir, Canada’s 15th governor general, Harper called the North a “great treasure house.” The challenge he said, “is to make sure we open the doors ... to northerners, to all northerners.”
Aboriginal communities, “with their young, fast-growing populations, often living close to mining areas,” are the ideal workforce for this burgeoning industry, Harper said. By 2017, he added, “the mining sector will create thousands of new direct and indirect jobs in this territory alone.”
Of the roughly half the workforce that is aboriginal, just 3,000 have high school diplomas. Fewer than 1,000 hold university degrees.
Bold words — and a great deal rides on them, far beyond this territory of 41,462. The overarching Conservative strategy, since before the 2012 budget, has been to trumpet resource development as a kind of cure-all.
There are $650 billion worth of resource projects nationwide, we have heard, lined up and ready to proceed. Prosperity, Conservative party talking points have asserted for years, is not assured.
Therefore, it’s important to proceed without delay.
Ending the resource logjam was the primary justification for last year’s omnibus budget bills, the first of which caused a near revolt in Parliament because of changes made to 70 federal laws, including a substantial streamlining of the environmental review process.
Within the government there is a sincere belief that this was justified, indeed necessary, due to the urgency of the global economic challenges ahead.
But none of it hangs together unless the people who live nearest the resources are more or less supportive.
This is why Harper is spending time and political capital here, year after year. He genuinely believes the North holds the key to Canada’s economic future. He’s also well aware, after the hard lessons of previous summer tours, that bread, not circuses — or in this context jobs, not battleships — is the safest route. He’s more right than wrong on both counts.
The risk is simply that this effort, like previous bold northern promises, will falter, because the challenges are simply too great to be solved in the time that he has.
The Northwest Territories’ working-age population is just 32,100, according to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada’s latest Aboriginal Labour Market Bulletin. Of those, 7.1 per cent are unemployed. That’s only marginally above the national average.
But other social metrics tell a different story. Of the roughly half the workforce that is aboriginal, just 3,000 have high school diplomas. Fewer than 1,000 hold university degrees.
And infant mortality rates in the Northwest Territories tripled between 2005 and 2009, according to Statistics Canada.
For now, folks in Hay River seem simply pleased that the prime minister of Canada showed up in their town. The rubber will hit the road — the new one, being built to Tuktoyaktuk — when results begin to trickle in, sometime before the 2015 election.