PM delivers remarks in Hay River, Northwest Territories

Good morning, everyone.

Thank you, Joe, for that kind introduction.

I want to thank all of you for that very warm northern welcome.

Thanks as well to our emcee, Leona, Minister Aglukkaq.

A greeting also to all of my Parliamentary colleagues, to MP Ryan Leef, to Senator, former Premier Dennis Patterson, to Minister Bernard Valcourt.

Great to have members of the Territorial Legislature, of course you, Premier McLeod.

Wonderful to have you here.

Greetings as well to Mayor Cassidy, to chiefs Martsellos, Fabien, to Elder Sunrise, and everybody who’s been able to join us today.

We really appreciate your presence.

Also greetings to our hosts today, our partners, President Jane Archuk of Aurora College, and of course, the chair of the Mine Training Society, Iris Catholique.

Also, my greetings to all representatives of industry and academia who have joined us today.

I realize that a lot of educators, students, businesspeople have covered a lot of ground in order to be with us, and in a couple of cases, with a bit more excitement than we counted on in terms of travelling here, but I gather everyone is safe, and we thank all of you for your presence here today. 

Hay River is the second scheduled stop on my eighth annual summer tour of Canada's North.

Friends, as you know, Laureen and I have a deep affection for the North.

This is, as was mentioned, my eighth annual northern summer tour, my 11th visit to the Northwest Territories since I became Prime Minister.

And we are delighted to be here, in spite of all those other 11 visits, the first time Laureen and I are here visiting Hay River, the hub of the North.

So it’s great to be here.

And we appreciate all the northern hospitality that we’ve been shown.

Ladies and gentlemen, after my eight summer northern tours, I’m starting to understand what Pierre Burton meant when he wrote, when he said, quote, “There is a saying that after five years in the North, everyone is an expert. After ten years, a novice.”

I haven’t hit ten years yet, but I will admit that whenever I travel across the North and visit Northern communities, spend time with Northerners, I am reminded that there is so much to learn here, and that the North really is a place of infinite promise.

I’m also reminded that as a northern country, it is the North that truly defines us as Canadians, and it is the North that truly is Canada’s call to greatness.

As to answer that call, our Government established our Northern Strategy.

Our strategy is based on four pillars.

Exercising Canada’s sovereignty, promoting social and economic development, protecting our environmental heritage, and improving and devolving northern governance.

And ladies and gentlemen, I’m pleased to report that we’re making good progress on all of these fronts, especially most notably, I should say here, on governance.

As many of you know that very recently, and following my last trip to this territory, our Government has now signed with the government of the Northwest Territories and aboriginal governments…

A final, historic devolution agreement with the Northwest Territories.

Premier, this is a great achievement for both of our governments, but especially for your government.

This is a great agreement also for the people of the Northwest Territories, and the beginning of a promising new era in regional governance.

But, my friends, we’re not here today because of devolution.

We are here to talk about another pillar of our Government’s Northern Strategy, and that is development, and specifically, our Government’s plans to ensure that Northerners take full advantage of the new opportunities that responsible resource development will bring.

Let me put it this way, or put it in this context.

Canada’s 15th Governor General, Lord Tweedsmuir, wrote about his northern travels more than 80 years ago.

He called the North, and I quote, “a great treasure house”.

Our challenge, and our Government’s commitment, is to make sure we open the doors of this great treasure house to Northerners, and that all Northerners benefit from this.

Now, as we know, much of the North’s treasure is underground.

That’s why our Government has already implemented sound practical measures to encourage the mining that creates jobs and that brings prosperity to Northerners, and indeed, to all Canadians.

We also want to specifically encourage aboriginal peoples with their young, fast-growing populations, often living close to mining areas, to make the most of the great opportunities before them.

How great are these opportunities?

The mining sector is already the largest private employer of aboriginal people in Canada, and current estimates show that by 2017, the mining sector will create thousands of new direct and indirect jobs in this territory alone.

So northern mining has the potential to permanently change many lives for the better.

That said, in order to benefit from Northern opportunities, aboriginal peoples must have greater access to education and skills training.

That’s why our government is investing in northern basic education programs.

It’s why we created the Skills and Partnership Fund.

It’s why we’ve invested in post-secondary scholarships and bursaries for First Nations and Inuit students.

And it’s why our Government has supported a northern success story called the Mine Training Society.

The Mine Training Society is a partnership linking the federal government with all the people you see here today, with industry, aboriginal governments, and the government of the Northwest Territories, and of course with academia.

In the last ten years, through training and recruitment, the society has helped more than 850 trainees find meaningful employment, and we want to see that number grow.

And so today I’m delighted to announce that our Government will make a significant investment in the Mining Training Society’s new Mining the Future project.

This project will provide hundreds of aboriginal people in the Northwest Territories and western Nunavut with the vital skills and experience they need to take advantage of new jobs in their own communities and across the North, and the really exciting thing I know here is this: the Mining the Future project will be delivered right here in Hay River.

This September, in fact.

In a matter of weeks, people from across the territory will come to your community to take Introduction to Underground Mining.
Delivered by Aurora College, this program prepares trainees for a successful career in the mining industry.

And, ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you why the Mine Training Society programs have achieved such outstanding results.

First, before candidates are accepted to the program, they receive career guidance and counselling from their own Mine Training Society job coach.

Second, these programs leverage the power of the strategic partnerships I talked about.

Industry’s role is especially critical.

Beyond investing financially in this program, the private sector assists with program development, hosts trainees at their mine sites, and most importantly, they hire graduates.

Now, this brings me to my last point: the Mine Training Society takes a demand driven approach.

It connects candidates to real jobs as defined by the marketplace.

This ensures trainees succeed by landing and then keeping high quality, well paying jobs.

Mine Training Society graduates often walk out of the classroom and right into a job.

In fact, I’m told that at a recent graduation ceremony, one student was offered a job as he walked across the stage to accept his diploma.

That’s market demand!

Indeed, it’s common for graduate testimonials to include the words, “immediately employed”.

That was the case for Stacey McSwain.

We all met Stacey earlier.

After graduating in 2007 from the Mineral Processing Operator Technician program, Stacey was immediately employed by De Beers.

Larone Lafferty – I think Larone’s also here today – had a similar experience.

Larone was immediately employed after he graduated from the Industrial Security Training Program in 2008.

The evidence overwhelmingly shows that the Mine Training Society approach works and it works very well.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I’ve kept you long enough, so let me just close with this final thought.

More than 60 years ago, Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, as I’ve mentioned repeatedly, the first Prime Minister to travel to the North, said that equality of opportunity in this country was a sacred trust.

He said, quote, it was handed down to us in the tradition of Macdonald to bring about one Canada for every citizen and equality for every province.

And I would add, every territory.

Our Government believes that education and skills training are the foundation of the equality of opportunity that Prime Minister Diefenbaker was referring to.

And, friends, for making it happen, I want to congratulate the Northwest Territories Mine Training Society.

Our Government’s investment in the Mining the Future program, I believe, will help more people, people like Stacey and Larone, to get the training they need to obtain meaningful jobs, to provide for their families, and to aspire to even better futures for themselves and their children.

This is the future of hope that our Government wants for the North, and indeed for all of Canada, and I want to thank all of you for having me, and all of you who are involved in this for making it happen.

Merci.

Masi cho.

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