Despite the multitude of mining projects in Quebec, the municipalities created for mining activity and almost entirely devoted to it are on the way out. As existing mining towns close, repurpose or attempt to diversify, companies favor models like non-resident worker camps.
The mayor of Fermont is attached to his city, located on the North Shore at the border of Labrador. Martin St-Laurent praises the services that are offered to families in this land of northern lights.
But fewer and fewer workers from the two iron mines in the area are settling in the municipality. For the past ten years, the mines have allowed employees to become “permanent non-residents” (PNR). These employees then make long continuous work stays, during which they are housed and fed in company buildings, interspersed with a return flight home, further south, for a period of leave.
Today, nearly half of workers have adopted this model, according to Mr. St-Laurent.
“We don’t have the opportunity to show these people what life is like in Fermont. They have no interest in getting involved in the community,” laments the mayor of the agglomeration of 2,500 souls.
Since very recently, the collective agreement at ArcelorMittal, however, requires workers to settle for three years in Fermont before having access to PNR status, says the mayor. “They will become consumers of services to make our businesses survive, their families will settle down and the spouses will be able to go and work in service companies, such as daycare,” hopes Mr. St-Laurent.
According to the man who has lived in Fermont for more than 25 years, living next to his workplace is nevertheless beneficial for the quality of life. “Every night, I’m home and I sleep in my bed. When I see young parents who are not with their children half the time, I don’t envy them at all,” says Mr. St-Laurent.
What future for the city, when, by the mayor’s own admission, all the mines are doomed to close one day? Mr. St-Laurent is betting on economic diversification. He cites in particular the idea of a wind farm and new mining projects a few tens of kilometers from the city.
He would like to get rid of the mono-industrial city label which repels real estate builders. They consider the market too risky, plagued by fluctuations in mining production. In Fermont, the overwhelming majority of houses are sold to workers and bought by ArcelorMittal. But a free market would also be necessary so that other companies and citizens can settle, believes the mayor.
Fly in, fly out
The trend towards the worker camp model, often referred to by the English term fly-in fly-out (FIFO), is global, notes Gertrude Saxinger, assistant professor in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna. She has studied the phenomenon in several places around the world, including Russia and Australia.
“Mines are often located in remote places, because citizens don’t want them in their yards. But there are few people who want to move that far, ”said the one who took part in the international conference last week. Mining the Connections in Quebec.
Today, getting workers to travel is often less complex than creating and maintaining all the services associated with a city. The rise of this practice sometimes gives rise to hybrid models, where worker camps are established on the fringes of a local population. Moreover, some mines are also located near pre-existing communities, often indigenous.
The influx of workers can then create cohabitation problems. “It can lead to soaring housing prices, prostitution, behaviors related to alcohol consumption, acts of racism”, lists Mme Saxinger, who believes that cultural training with workers may be necessary.
Indigenous realities
Schefferville, about 200 kilometers north of Fermont, was established in the 1950s next to the Innu community of Matimekush. The municipality had up to 4,500 inhabitants, before being practically destroyed and reduced to less than 200 people when the mines closed in the 1980s. The Innu community remained on the spot, living from hunting, fishing and social assistance.
Matimekush-Lac John Chief Réal McKenzie remembers the racism his community of 800 people experienced at the time. Relations have not always been easy with extractive companies.
“They shouldn’t have demolished houses and infrastructure when they shut down the city. We asked for them to make up for the shortage of housing we had in our community. But they destroyed the bowling alley, the municipal gymnasium, the recreation center, the swimming pool, the church, the hospital. It’s unbelievable, ”protests Mr. McKenzie.
While mining activity has resumed, almost all workers are non-residents. They are temporarily living in a mining complex in Labrador and have no contact with Matimekush. Mr. McKenzie is proud that his community has asserted its rights in order to establish agreements with mining companies, notably guaranteeing quality jobs, contracts with Innu companies, royalties and the construction of quality housing.
In several places in Quebec, members of the First Nations and Inuit make up part of the FIFO workforce. This is notably the case at the Raglan mine, in Nunavik, an ancestral Inuit territory. This mine provides royalties, jobs and contracts to the Inuit, which is beneficial for the communities, believes Andy Moorhouse, vice-president of economic development for the Makivik Corporation.
However, it is important for Mr. Moorhouse to diversify the economic activities of the communities so that they are not dependent on one industry and to ensure their long-term prosperity.
Because another element also threatens jobs in cities and communities that rely on mining: technology. According to researcher Keith Storey of Memorial University of Newfoundland, the digitalization and automation of many tasks will mean that a growing number of mining jobs can be filled by people located a great distance from the mine, to the detriment of those offered in the mining towns.
life after mining
That said, it is possible for a mining town to survive the closure of their creator. This is particularly the case of Val-des-Sources, formerly called Asbestos because of the asbestos mine located in its center. In 2012, the closure of the Jeffrey mine was a shock for the entire population, because the local economy was still monopolized by the latter. The inhabitants left and were forced to sell their houses at a lower price than they had bought them.
Aided by a government fund for its economic transformation, this Estrie community then set about attracting several other types of businesses.
“We managed to develop an entrepreneurial culture,” said the general manager of Val-des-Sources, Georges-André Gagné. Cheese factory, slaughterhouse, machinery manufacturer, pharmaceutical company: a diversity now makes up the economic landscape of the municipality. The latter has the advantage of being located in southern Quebec, not far from urban centres.
As for the mine, a corporation has been set up to develop it. International events from slacklining are regularly organized above the pit, which has been revegetated. A new public square has been built around the latter, and the municipality hopes to attract tourists. Mining buildings are reused by other companies.
Like what, even if the holes are greened or transformed into artificial lakes, the mining heritage is dug for a long time, for better and for worse.