The North Shore’s demographic decline would worry the president of mining company ArcelorMittal, the region’s largest private employer.
• Also read: ArcelorMittal: A Quebec-based railroad receives a prestigious award
• Also read: Ultra-rich Europeans want to produce “green” steel here
ArcelorMittal Mining Canada President and CEO Mapi Mobwano has launched a call for mobilization to revitalize North Shore cities.
Since 2013, the North Shore with its 90,400 inhabitants has been slowly but surely emptying. The population is shrinking by a few hundred people every year. Last year, it was the only region in Quebec whose population declined.
ArcelorMittal’s President is concerned about this trend, which is expected to continue.
The mining company, which employs 2,500 people, has great difficulties in recruiting. According to Mapi Mobwano, the reasons are manifold: lack of housing, lack of educators, teachers and nurses. He also notes a lack of infrastructure in the cities and a lack of service, especially in the area of gastronomy.
While ArcelorMittal could soon launch projects that require hundreds of workers, it says the trend needs to be reversed.
“We can’t do these projects if we don’t have the manpower. Work poses a great risk for us. Today that worries us because of the population decline on the north coast. We want to revitalize the cities in which we operate. We want to bring people back to the north coast, but of course we can’t do it alone,” he said in an interview with TVA Nouvelles.
He called for mobilization to find solutions. He believes the North Shore is lacking in funding and that the Quebec government needs to do more to help communities. Mining companies, including ArcelorMittal, paid $567 million in mining royalties in Quebec City in 2021, while Caniapiscau’s MRC, from which the assets are mined, received just $292,000, he pointed out.
The message is sent to Finance Minister Eric Girard in anticipation of the presentation of the budget on March 21.
“We propose to look at what can best be done to help the MRCs where mining royalties are generated. So that we can also enable them to create a quality of life that is necessary to attract people.
Currently 70% of ArcelorMittal’s 2,500 north coast employees are based in the region. The others, around 750, work there according to the “fly in fly out” formula, a phenomenon that is gaining momentum. ArcelorMittal says it favors a permanent resident-focused recruitment model, but its president notes that the current situation is not convincing families to settle on the north coast, especially as all regions of Quebec are currently struggling.