Nova Scotia is looking to bring companies together to grow the mining industry. <\/p>\n
HALIFAX \u2014 The federal government has announced a new industry-led alliance aimed at growing the skilled workforce for Canada\u2019s mining industry, which is struggling to fill key jobs.<\/p>\n
Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu made the announcement Thursday in southwestern Nova Scotia, saying the new body, dubbed the mining and minerals workforce alliance, is part of Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s drive to build a more independent economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have a labour shortage \u2026 in many areas of the country,\u201d Hajdu said in an interview, referring to the mining industry. \u201cThey cannot find the kinds of professionals they need.\u201d<\/p>\n
The minister said the industry and other skilled trades are also facing \u201ca negative net popularity\u2019 with young people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are good quality, solid careers and too few Canadians know about them. Too few young Canadians are choosing mining as a career, and the mining alliance is going to change that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
On another front, Hajdu said the alliances will try to streamline provincial certification requirements for mining professionals to make it easier for them to work in other jurisdictions.<\/p>\n
Later in the day, Nova Scotia\u2019s natural resources minister, Tory Rushton, said he wasn\u2019t aware of Hajdu\u2019s announcement, which started at the same time Rushton\u2019s office announced plans for a provincial roundtable that will bring together members of the mining industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was news to us about the federal announcement,\u201d Rushton said Thursday, noting that he returned to the cabinet table only two weeks ago. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to investigating what that means …. I haven\u2019t been briefed on everything. It\u2019s not the province versus the feds.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for Ottawa\u2019s new mining alliance, Hajdu said it\u2019s the first of six workforce alliances to be established, all of them devoted to addressing labour market challenges. First announced in September, Ottawa has since committed $81 million in funding over five years.<\/p>\n
Hajdu said these alliances will also help Canada respond to the economic burden caused by U.S. tariffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen the shocks to our economy as a result of the tariff war with the United States,\u201d Hajdu said. \u201cCanadians expect us to move quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The minister said the mining alliance will be led by the Mining Industry Human Resources Council and supported by the Mining Association of Canada. According to Ottawa\u2019s plan, these two organizations will bring together a network of employers, labour groups, post-secondary institutions, Indigenous partners and underemployed groups to develop a workforce strategy.<\/p>\n
Among other things, they will co-ordinate public and private investments in skills development. As well, the federal government says a key goal is to build what it calls \u201csustainable talent pipelines.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryan Montpellier, executive director of the Mining Industry Human Resources Council, said that as demand grows for critical minerals, more workers will be needed to get them to market.<\/p>\n
Asked if the Canadian government\u2019s decision to tighten immigration rules had hurt the industry\u2019s ability to fill jobs, Montpellier said most hires happen at the local, regional and provincial levels. Still, he confirmed the immigration system has proven useful when seeking candidates for engineering and geoscience-related jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe \u2026 lowering of the immigration system has had an impact, but it hasn\u2019t been that significant,\u201d Montpellier said in an interview. \u201cThe mining industry is not a huge user of the immigration system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montpellier, however, stressed that the reduction in the amount of international students allowed to enter Canada has led to a decline in enrolment for mining engineering and geoscience programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s probably where we\u2019ve seen the bigger challenge,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In 2024, Canada\u2019s mining sector contributed $112 billion to the country\u2019s GDP and directly employed about 438,000 workers.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the government says other alliances will soon be created for advanced manufacturing; energy and electricity; transportation and supply chains; housing and construction; and a sector the government refers to as the \u201ccare economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
By Michael MacDonald<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 4, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nova Scotia is looking to bring companies together to grow the mining industry. HALIFAX \u2014 The federal government…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[6763,45,49,48,295,3717,3540,47,43562,714,66],"class_list":["post-715715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-atlantic","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-labour","tag-mining","tag-national","tag-patty-hajdu","tag-politics","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}