‘Story is full circle now’

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This article was published 27/08/2024 (437 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Eight individuals received their recreational pilot permits Tuesday in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, boosted by all-expenses paid support from Winnipeg-based Exchange Income Corp.

It marked the third cohort of graduates of EIC’s Atik Mason Indigenous Pilot Pathway program that has been running out of Thompson for three years and the first from Nunavut.

Half of Tuesday’s grads will be heading to New Brunswick in the next couple of weeks to continue their training at EIC-owned Moncton Flight College.

There are another 15 students graduating from the Thompson operation in late September. With close to 40 participants in the program, company officials said it is just the beginning.

“If we can get this big enough, we might be able to build a whole squadron of First Nation pilots,” EIC chief executive Mike Pyle said.

EIC owns Perimeter Aviation, Calm Air, Keewatin Air and a few other smaller regional airlines.

The original program idea came about as an effort by the company to show its commitment to the communities it serves and to build a potential pool of pilots in an industry experiencing a critical staff shortage.

As the only regular transportation service provider in and out of many of the First Nations and Inuit communities it serves, the company sought to assist in creating role models to encourage others a career in aviation is a possibility.

The program began in 2022, and attracted more than 100 Indigenous applicants from throughout northern Manitoba for the first cohort of 15 students.

Five graduates from that group are now employed by EIC airlines and this week, two flew their first scheduled commercial flights on Perimeter Aviation.

“It’s a pretty exciting week for us,” Pyle said. “It was always theoretical until some became actual commercial pilots. The story is full circle now.”

In addition to Thompson and now Rankin Inlet locations, the company also offers a similar program out of Newfoundland and Labrador, where EIC owns regional carrier Provincial Airlines Ltd.

The company invests close to $3 million per year in the social sustainability program that has been viewed by many as an excellent example of economic reconciliation in action.

The company covers all the expenses for the students, including room and board, an elder in residence, weekly stipends, as well as the cost to fly back to home communities during study breaks.

David White, EIC executive vice-president aviation, said it makes sense to expand the program to Nunavut. “It’s an area we have served for decades,” he said. “We recognize the needs for something like this outside of Manitoba.”

Calm Air charters twice daily Boeing 737 service between Winnipeg and Rankin Inlet using a Canadian North airlines plane and crew. From Rankin Inlet, Calm Air flies regular scheduled flights to many communities in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut.

White said one of the Rankin Inlet students is from the hamlet of Igloolik and wants to be able to stay in his home community. “He’s bound and determined to be a medivac captain for Keewatin, flying out of Igloolik.”

The executive said the operation of the program in Nunavut is meaningful, because in just about every other respect, residents have to leave the territory for training.

“It allows them to make different decisions with confidence,” said White. “Otherwise, they have to go somewhere far away to try something before they even know your odds for success.”

The hope is, like the student from Igloolik, the carriers will have pilots flying into the communities where they come from.

“As soon as the people in the communities see their own community members flying the planes, it will create role models,” said Pyle. “It will put the number of applications for the next intake on steroids. Eventually, it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

The program requires flight instructors to travel from Moncton to the North.

Lisa McGivery, manager of the Atik Mason program (named after the company’s first Indigenous pilot), said they love participating. “They have enjoyed every moment of being there,” she said. “We get more instructors applying than we are able to facilitate.”

The first graduates at Rankin Inlet were only able to attain recreational permits, because of the short training season on the shores of Hudson Bay.

They all have the option to go on to seek their private pilot licence and then commercial pilot licence, either in Rankin or Thompson or they can chose to go to Moncton. There is no obligation to apply to work for EIC airlines.

McGivery said in addition to the two graduates who have started flying for Perimeter, three others have already been hired and are making their way through the final ground school and simulator training.

“They will be flying within a month or so at most, and by the end of the year, we’re looking to hire another five who are interviewing right now,” she said. “Potentially, they will be hired on before the new year.”

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca