Some government and industry representatives say the NWT is not yet ready to support recently announced major projects, but can get there quickly.
Business, government and engineering leaders looked ahead to coming investment at an engineering and geoscience conference in Yellowknife from May 13-14.
Rebecca Connelly, vice president of strategy and engagement for Det’on Cho Management, said no one expected three NWT projects to be referred to the Major Projects Office in March.
She said the territory needs to “recognize after false starts, there is a need to get ready now to accommodate the sheer scale of this investment.”
“I see a little bit more happiness and enthusiasm, it’s a broader scale enthusiasm,” said Tim Taylor, a retired engineer.
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“That enthusiasm is going to take us a long way.”
Connelly and Taylor joined Gaeleen MacPherson, associate deputy minister for the GNWT Department of Infrastructure, on a panel during the Northwest Territories and Nunavut Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists annual professional development symposium.
Panelists said the territory is lacking in necessary infrastructure, like quarries or landfills, to support the construction, but also long-term infrastructure like hospitals and housing. Taylor said those kinds of services should be worked into project contracts and considered in planning for the major projects.
MacPherson said the GNWT is “looking holistically across the territory” to identify what the infrastructure needs are, and how structures built for the construction of major projects could be used once the projects are completed. One example of this, MacPherson said, is tourist operators potentially using temporary work camps set up to build the Mackenzie Valley Highway.
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“Attention needs to be not the near term, not even the long term, but the long, long term,” said MacPherson.
Taylor said now is also an opportunity to review education in the North. He said people with the necessary skills do live in the North, but their capacity will quickly be stretched.
“Now you’ve got three projects and that’s going to tap into your resources,” said Taylor.
Taylor said the people who will help build, but more importantly maintain, the projects are still in elementary and high school.
“We need to convince them that this is going to be exciting and that they’re going to have a good career and fun things to do,” said Taylor.
MacPherson said the GNWT views the upcoming major infrastructure projects as an opportunity to understand workforce and educational requirements that didn’t exist when the three diamond mines were constructed or in operation.
