Canada's new navy is being built in Halifax but regional jobs and spending are arriving in its wake. Part three in a series.
Part 1: The year in Halifax shipbuilding: The most complex and expensive procurement in Canada’s history
Part 2: TAYLOR: Politics pressure control of national shipbuilding strategy
Brad Paul was looking for a stable future for his daughter when he decided to start on a path to a new career in his mid-30s.
On his mother’s advice, the single father met with a representative from the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre in Halifax who was visiting indigenous communities across the province. The group was looking for applicants interested in jobs in the shipbuilding industry.
A program funded through the Irving Shipbuilding Centre of Excellence was seeking its first cohort of indigenous students who would be trained in metal fabrication over a two-year period at the Nova Scotia Community College Akerley Campus in Dartmouth.
“I didn’t know a single thing about it,” said Paul, who is from the Paqtnkek First Nation in Antigonish County.
“The only thing I really knew about metal fabrication was welding, basically. My uncle has his own welding machine in his garage and he used to do his own welding on his cars and whatever he could basically work on.”
After applying to the Pathways to Shipbuilding for Indigenous Students program, he was interviewed and accepted, along with 18 others.
The program’s aim was to introduce indigenous people to a career at the Irving shipyard in Halifax, where the First Nations community is under represented in the workforce.
Paul had to move closer to the city, which meant taking his daughter, Ava, to the Millbrook First Nation outside Truro. Paul rented a one-bedroom basement apartment and made the hour-long commute to the college each day.
It was tough, Paul said, especially for Ava, who was placed in daycare each day starting at 6:30 a.m.
The first month of the program was spent at the native friendship centre. It was at this point that students had to decide whether the program was really the right fit for them, said Odette Merchant, the NSCC project manager for the Irving Shipbuilding Centre of Excellence.
“The students had the opportunity to really get to know each other and get to know the supports and services of the friendship centre,” she said.
After the introduction to the program, the first semester involved personal and academic readiness, and career exploration. Safety training and basic courses in metal fabrication tested the mettle of the students, most of whom did not have backgrounds in the trade.
“It really gives them an opportunity to determine if this is the career path that they really want to pursue,” Merchant said.
Paul said some of his classmates had the misconception that completing the course no matter what grades you earned would be enough for a job at the shipyard.
Maintaining good grades and excellent attendance was part of his plan.
After the first year of learning the skills required for metal fabrication, Paul had moved on to building things from steel: escape ladders, stairs and a burning table.
“We put a lot of metal to work,” he said.
Irving is spending $250,000 a year on the centre of excellence for the duration of the federal government’s shipbuilding strategy.
Bursaries cover all tuition costs for the two-year program. It breaks down to $3,220 for each student per year. The funding was renewable into the second year, based on student performance.
Paul graduated from the program in July and began working at the shipyard three days later. He’s an apprentice iron worker on the contract to build the Canadian navy’s Arctic offshore patrol vessels and supply ships.
Nineteen students were enrolled in September 2016, and Irving offered employment to the 12 who remained upon graduation.
It was a struggle early on, Paul said, juggling school with the needs of a child. Now 37, he lives on the outskirts of Halifax in Tantallon with Ava, his girlfriend and her two sons.
He was once a janitor and youth co-ordinator and had aspirations of becoming a firefighter. In the end, he said, the two-year journey at NSCC was worth it for his family.
Pathways to Shipbuilding is a collaboration of 10 industry, government, academic and indigenous partners.
Similar opportunities are available to unemployed and underemployed women through Women Unlimited and African-Canadians through the East Preston Empowerment Academy. Students of these programs are scheduled to graduate from NSCC in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
NSCC says it continues to work with Irving to determine what skill sets will be required in the years to come, according to Roz Penfound, NSCC academic vice-president and chair of the centre of excellence steering committee.
There may be another cohort of indigenous students but it’s not part of the committee’s immediate plans.
“We don’t have a direct plan right now, but we certainly will be continuing this work and it may well involve another stream in the future,” Penfound said.
“We’re currently working on trying to get a program going that would be for disabled persons and, of course, all those communities — women, African-Nova Scotians, indigenous students, disabled persons — they’re all part of the cohorts that we will deal with.”
