“The #1 challenge facing Teck Cominco is the pending labour shortage; almost 50% of Teck’s labour force will be eligible for retirement in 5 years.” Donald Lindsay, President and CEO, Teck Cominco Limited (from MABC website)

I heard someone, perhaps the Minister for Immigration, speaking about the disconnect in Canada between so many jobs in the mining sector and yet so many recent immigrants that are unemployed or under-employed. Apparently they are going to look at the immigration policy to see if they can better select immigrants who can work in the jobs that Canada will have.

We have recently read that immigrants from Ireland, Phillipines, and Mexico are travelling here to work. (Maybe Greece has a few under-employed?)

Another initiative to find workers:

The MABC, along with the AME BC, has led the way for the creation of the provincial Mineral Exploration & Mining Industry Labour Shortage Task Force. The task force is funded exclusively by Service Canada. This task force is unique in the sense that, nowhere else, have representatives from industry, government, labour unions and first nations come together to engage in dialogue regarding the mining sector’s HR issues