There was a euphoric feeling in the air at the Civic Centre last week during the B.C. Natural Resources Forum as everyone from the province's premier to local MLAs to industry leaders carried on and on about what a bright future the region has.
There's no doubt about it - with $35 billion in megaprojects in the cards and the Asian market opening up to lumber and oil, Northern B.C. seems poised for a financial windfall.
Of the four regions in B.C. predicted to have the greatest growth in employment this decade, three of them are in the northern region.
But there were warnings hanging over that revved up progress machine, and they were all about skilled workers - how to get them, how to train them, how to keep them in the north.
The good news is two prestigious organizations are working very hard to address a forecasted shortage of people able to build the megaprojects.
The bad news is their struggle seems to pit one against the other as a choice between brawn or brain. But take a closer look, and we see these choices don't have to be mutually exclusive.
Let's recap.
On the first day of the forum, UNBC president Dr. George Iwama repeated the school's long-held belief that the region needs an engineering program at the university.
He reminded audiences that a million job openings are predicted over this decade - a vast majority related to natural resource industry - and 78 per cent of those jobs will require a post-secondary credential.
On the second day of the forum, Industry Training Authority CEO Kevin Evans brought up Dr. Iwama's statistic, adding "but the other story is that they're not all university degrees."
He said 46 per cent of those jobs will need post-secondary education in a community college with a trade or technology.
Sounds just a little competitive, but universities and colleges don't necessarily offer an either/or proposition.
Taking past partnerships as examples to follow, before UNBC introduced its increasingly successful northern medical program, the school collaborated with the College of New Caledonia to offer a full nursing program.
Knowing the need for medical professionals was great and would only grow, both academic facilities approached the problem with the health of northern residents as a priority.
If we're hearing right, the north's economic health now hinges on expertise - both labour and academic - so perhaps it's time for another collaboration while UNBC awaits its engineering undergraduate program and CNC its engineering technology program.
As Dr. Iwama put it: "Ultimately, it's about the regional employment ecosystem: having the right balance of skilled and educated people in our region who will help to achieve sustainable communities, a sustainable economy, and a sustainable environment."
This also takes political will, which, as always, comes from the people.
Although we doubt the struggle to fill the need for skilled workers will capture the people's imagination the way the medical program did in June, 2000 when more than 7,000 gathered at the Multiplex to support the cause, the quality of life in the north may be similarly on line.
-- Prince George Citizen
