Funding from the federal government will go a long way to ensure Aboriginal youth have the right skills needed for the mining industry, says the executive director of Oshki-Pimache-O-Win.
Kellie Leitch, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, announced funding of more than $700,000 for the Oshki-Pimache-O-Win Education and Training Institute on Saturday.
The funding will go toward the organization’s Learning 2 Mine project, which will provide Aboriginal youth with training and experience they need to work in the mining industry.
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Rosie Mosquito, executive director of Oshki-Pimache-O-Win, said with the funding from the government they will be able to create a website for students as well as create three community-based courses that will be 12 weeks long.
Mosquito said the number of graduates have increased each year since Oshki first formed in 2000. With the help from the federal government, that number will grow, she said.
“The world is focused on our piece of territory in the Nishnawbe Aski Nation,” Mosquito said. “There’s huge potential (in the Ring of Fire). We certainly like to help our young people to be able to seize those opportunities and those employment opportunities that are well paying not just manual labour. With this project, they will learn essential mining skills and basic life skills.”
Leitch said the government wanted to focus on Aboriginal skills development and create a strong workforce.
“These are young people interested in getting into the mining industry,” Leitch said. “The skills and development fund has existed with the government for some time and this program here was developed and put forth to our department and it was an excellent program with multiple phases. This was an opportunity for us to provide skills and opportunity to young Aboriginals in Northern Ontario.”
NAN Grand Chief Stan Beardy said it was encouraging to see the help from the government and added that many youth in Northern Ontario can’t find jobs because there aren’t any funding for them. He said the investment in the Aboriginal people will be 10 times the amount announced.
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