Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Meadowbank is currently the only mine operating in Nunavut Territory. Others are under consideration and development. Using participatory action research methodology (PAR), the research examined the impact of the mine and employment at the mine on Inuit women in the community of Qamani'tuaq (Baker Lake) Nunavut Territory. The research examined the extent to which women were part of the process of negotiation for the mine. Women were not adequately consulted with the result that operational considerations impacting them and their families did not receive adequate attention. The research identified important intersecting impacts with implications for an exacerbation of gender differences related to income, increased use of alcohol and drugs with implications for domestic violence, the exposure of women to harassment and sexual assaults as a result of their employment in housekeeping services, implications for the school attendance of children as a result of the 'two-week in, two-week out' work schedule and a lack of facilities and programmes in the community for dealing with these and other issues.