Aboriginal Mining Focus Of Forum

Aboriginal Mining Focus Of Forum

Tuesday, November 02, 2010 at 14:07

 

 

An Aboriginal mining symposium is underway in Saskatoon today.

 

Dozens of business leaders, Aboriginal contractors and students have assembled at the Saskatoon Inn.

 

Conference organizers say the purpose of the event is to educate companies about what is happening with the Aboriginal community in the province and foster new relationships.

 

Brad Darbyshire is the general manager of Points Athabasca Consulting, a service and construction outfit in the province’s far north.

 

Darbyshire says between 20% and 30% of its 450-person workforce is Aboriginal.

 

He also says it took a lot of hard work on their behalf to get to that point.

 

Darbyshire adds he would like to see other employers enhance their ability to hire more First Nations and Metis workers.

 

The CEO of the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business says he knows questions are being asked about the aboriginal workforce of PotashCorp.

 

Clint Davis notes the company was forthright in admitting earlier this year that it currently doesn’t have any impact-benefit agreements with any First Nations in the province.

 

However, Davis does point out that PotashCorp has appointed Keith Martell, the chairman of the First Nations Bank of Canada, to its board of directors.