(Cover photo by Fran Hurcomb)
November 25, 2019
Months of discussion and planning came to fruition Wednesday as the Northwest Territories’ Women in Mining Canada chapter launched at a near-capacity Yellowknife Geoscience Forum event.
At the podium, fittingly, was the territory’s new Industry, Tourism and Investment (ITI) Minister Katrina Nokleby — an engineer by trade and a long-standing advocate for advancing women in in the male-dominated field.
(Photo: by Fran Hurcomb. Pamela Strand of Industry, Tourism and Investment speaks to the crowd)
She was joined by ITI’s Assistant Deputy Minister for Mineral and Petroleum Resources Pamela Strand — herself a geologist with a history in mining.
“There is a mantra in the STEM program that says: You can’t be what you can’t see. You can’t expect young girls to envision themselves working in male dominated fields if they don’t have the example and mentors to look up to, to emulate and follow,” said the Minister as she introduced the event. “That’s what today’s all about.”
Winter Bailey — a communications and communities official with Diavik Diamond Mines — urged the supportive crowd of women and men spanning the territory and resource sectors to get together, share ideas, and build the relationships needed to get the chapter off-the-ground.
Women in Mining Canada is a national not-for-profit organization formed in 2009 focused on advancing the interests of women in the minerals exploration and mining sector.
Diavik, Dominion, De Beers, and the Government of the Northwest Territories have partnered to establish the organization in the NWT.