Five Sunshine Coast residents are part of a cohort of students currently undergoing marine navigational training in the far North, this time training near Inuvik.
Led by Captain Georges LaRoche, another Sunshine Coast resident, the class will finish its training in May.
With 35 years of experience across 46 vessels, LaRoche has a wealth of knowledge and experience to share with students.
“I'm privileged to be able to pass some of that on so we can help other people's lives,” he said.
The Bridge Watch Rating North Program is offered by the Western Arctic Marine Training Centre, and is “allowing Canadians to establish a firmer footprint in our Arctic regions,” said LaRoche.
He said the program began when the government was forming the Ocean Protection Plan (Launched in 2016, and renewed in 2022) and had a goal to establish a “foothold in the Arctic regions.”
The Canadian government is doing this by creating infrastructure and supporting the marine industry, which includes creating training centres, said LaRoche.
“In doing that, the primary goal was to also certify and train the people of the North so they would have a larger footprint and more control into what's going on over their lands and waters.”
Now training the program’s third cohort, with five of the 12 students being Sunshine Coast residents, LaRoche said overall the fully-funded program (for eligible students) has been an “amazing success.”
“It's a win-win for everybody. It's creating employment for young people and it's providing qualified personnel to the marine industry, which has been a deficit for people entering, as opposed to the amount of people that are exiting,” he said.
He shared that the program began by focusing on employing people of the North and has since been opened up to all Indigenous peoples around Canada and women who want to work in “non-traditional roles.”
Once completed, students are certified to enter the marine industry nationally or internationally and are qualified to work on any size vessel, LaRoche said.
He said the training is providing an especially positive impact on students who come from remote communities up North where employment can be limited.
The training is normally done in Hay River, NWT, however, LaRoche said this class is doing a special course in Inuvik to better connect to the community and, “get a better cognizance of what's going on up in our Arctic regions.”
The program is also affiliated with BCIT. The group was home for two weeks in February before going to Vancouver for training on firefighting management and survival craft operation certification through BCIT, before returning to the North for the remainder of the course.
The training has already paid off for many, LaRoche said the employment rate is 95 per cent in their past classes.
Some of LaRoche’s past students have been employed at the Coast Guard, Ocean Group and BC Ferries and many of the current students have already secured jobs in the industry, ready for them when they finish the course.
After working on 46 different ships, LaRoche said, “I've been blessed with getting to know a lot of good people,” which has helped him make connections for his students.
“What I do tell my students is … that the Canadian people are amongst the greatest mariners in the world. Our history of navigating seas goes well back beyond the European settling of this land to the Indigenous people who navigated our coastal waters, navigated the Great Lakes, which are inland seas in themselves, and navigated Great Slave Lake,” said LaRoche. “These are very large bodies of water, and they moved goods and people from one end to the other since the beginning of time. So this is in our history, it's in our blood. I'm really proud to be a part of it.”
Jordan Copp is the Coast Reporter’s civic and Indigenous affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
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