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Report forecasts need for workers in mining sector

The report was unveiled at the career fair at the Canadian Mining Expo this week at the McIntyre Arena
2018-06-07 Job forecast MH
Northern College president Fred Gibbons talks at the reveal of the mining sector employment and hiring forecast. Maija Hoggett/TimminsToday

In the next 10 years, there will be a need for 2,819 workers locally in the mining industry.

The statistic is just one of the findings of the Far Northeast Training Board’s mining sector employment and hiring forecast.

The report, which was announced late last year, was unveiled at the career fair at the Canadian Mining Expo this week at the McIntyre Arena.

“The findings didn’t tell us anything we didn’t know. We know there are shortages of workers, it’s just helping us to quantify it and qualify it, so we now have numbers with the mining industries that participated, we also know which occupations are in highest demand and it shows that most of those are occupations that are in high demand in other industries as well,” said Julie Joncas, FNETB executive director.

“When we look at this number, as impressive as it is, when you combine that with the other industries, there’s a lot more opportunities than we think in our communities.”

For the report, the key contact points were active mine sites, advanced exploration sites, and mining suppliers.

The nine active mines all participated, along with two of nine advanced exploration sites, and 52 of 150 mining suppliers.

Geographically, the report covers Timmins, the Highway 11 corridor from Hearst to Latchford, from Kirkland Lake to the Quebec border, Chapleau, Hornepayne and communities along the James Bay coast.

With all the data collected, of particular interest to Joncas is the number of workers from outside the region.

“The demand in terms of how many workers employers are going to need, or how many people are going to retire we’ve always tracked that. But the number of workers from outside the region…that’s interesting,” she said.

Between the shortfall of jobs and having over 900 workers from outside the region, Timmins Mayor Steve Black noted that it adds up to over 3,700 jobs  

“That’s a community in northern Ontario. That’s the shortage we have in Northern Ontario,” he said.

“I hope this sends a message to our entire community about the importance that we have to place on the attraction of people in the future for northern Ontario, for the City of Timmins and for the mining industry as a whole.”

He said there’s opportunity to attract people to the region by working with industry and education partners.

“I know the other four mayors are all strongly on board with putting together a pan-northern platform of people attraction together, we’ll have that discussion again early July when we get back together for our final meeting this term,” said Black.

Having an idea of what jobs are going to be in demand is helpful for the community colleges in the area.

“I think we got some really rich data, data that we’ve been missing for a very, very long time,” said Fred Gibbons, Northern College president.

Already, he can see many ways to apply the information.

“I can see it being instrumental in helping us to recruit students to targeted programs to help fill some of these needs or opportunities,” said Gibbons. “It helps us to refine some of the program offerings that we have in our college and also direct some of our future planning for programs.”

Interesting findings in the report are:

• The current workforce: 6,461 people

• Anticipated workforce in 2027: 7,248

• Anticipated retirements: 1,932 (about 30 per cent of the current workforce)

• Number of workers from outside the region: 925

Top five occupations of interest:

• Construction millwrights and industrial mechanics: 439

• Underground production and development miners: 397

• Truck drivers: 336

• Heavy-duty equipment mechanics: 229

• Heavy equipment operators: 212

Top five jobs with workers from outside the region:

• Underground production and development miners: 215

• Truck drivers: 126

• Drillers and blasters: 57

• Heavy equipment operators: 47

• Welders: 45

The training board is in the process of updating its overall labour market forecast.

Joncas said they are moving toward more industry specific reports now, though.

“Mining is a good starting point, we’re thinking of maybe health sector might be another sector we want to look at in the coming months, likely in the fall. Forestry as well, it’s another natural resource industry that has its ups and downs, but it does provide opportunities in some of our small communities that we need to consider and we need to communicate,” she said.