No dozer, no problem: Nunavut's newest heavy equipment operators train via simulator

The boardroom at the Kitikmeot Inuit Association in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, looked more like an arcade this month than a place to do business.

Throttle in hand, 29-year-old Ryan Angohiatok's eyes are focused on a large TV monitor as he moves a virtual pile of dirt with a virtual excavator.

"(You) get a feeling what it would be like on a real machine in the world," says Angohiatok, while seated in a vibrating chair.

"It just gives you that feeling you can do this."

But this isn't a game. Angohiatok is one of eight young people from across Nunavut's Kitikmeot region to complete a heavy equipment operator certification course using four large simulators.

The Kitikmeot Inuit Association flew participants to Cambridge Bay, where they re-created in the classroom the experience of operating big machines such as bulldozers, loaders, excavators and articulated trucks.

"Over the last year, we've really noticed an increase on the employers' side for requests for people who have heavy equipment operator certification," said Michelle Buchan, the KIA's manager of Inuit employment and training.

Buchan pointed to a construction boom in Cambridge Bay, and the nearby Hope Bay gold mine going into production for the spike in demand.

• Nunavut's Hope Bay mine pours its first gold bar

She also said there are jobs at local hamlet offices, the former DEW Line site in Cambridge Bay — now called the North Warning System — and even at diamond mines in the Northwest Territories.

"There's a demand," she said. "And the generation of folks that have a lot of experience as heavy equipment operators are looking toward retirement. So we need to rebuild that pool."

Getting that training isn't always possible for people in the Kitikmeot region. Access to real equipment isn't often available, and people who head to southern provinces for certification need a class 5 unrestricted driver's licence to train on those roads. Getting that licence is difficult in Nunavut, according to Buchan.

"We have very few driver examiners in Nunavut and they don't come very often, especially to the smaller communities," she said. 

"It's almost impossible to get their class 5 unrestricted."

Students spent more than 80 hours in the simulator seat, troubleshooting up to a dozen scenarios of different types of jobs. They are graded on precision and completing tasks.

"All the hard stuff you learn in a safe environment where you can't get hurt,"  said trainer Bill Mattson of Nuna Training Technologies, explaining some of the simulated tasks participants must complete.

"The cost of using the simulator for the initial training would be 10 per cent of what the cost would be with the actual equipment.

"You work with a trench box, you do a back-filling scenario — all the different types of jobs you might do with an excavator."

The 28-day training program cost $250,000 to run, with funds being provided by Service Canada, the KIA and Kitikmeot Corporation.