4.4 Port Hope Simpson

Highlights

Port Hope Simpson was the smallest and the most isolated of all the communities in the Phase II of Bridging the Gap, and had some of the highest unemployment rates and lowest education levels of all of the communities.

That being said, Port Hope Simpson is also an area of anticipated growth and a possible centre of regionalization with the Labrador Highway and the possible centralization of air traffic to the south coast through the community, so there is an air of optimism for the future and opportunity not found in other communities with similar statistics.

A large percentage of the residents of Port Hope Simpson are of members of the Métis nation, the Labrador Métis nation participated as a funding partner, and many of the clients were Métis. This is the only aboriginal involvement in Bridging the Gap, and is one of the reasons the site is unique.

Additionally, it is the only site located in Labrador. Port Hope Simpson is on the south coast of Labrador and, until 2003, was only accessible by air, sea or snow mobile. 2003 saw the extension of the Labrador Highway through the community and has removed some of the isolation of the area. They have also, only this year, seen the introduction of local dial–up internet connectivity.

Finally, Port Hope Simpson was the site where Bridging the Gap experimented with having two employment partners (both sawmill operators), as well as silviculture experience with the Department of Forest Resources (Government of Newfoundland and Labrador).

There were 7 clients in Port Hope Simpson.

Challenges

There were challenges in the Port Hope Simpson project. These included:

• There was a significant variation of academic skills among the clients, ranging from grade school several decades ago to secondary school only a couple of years before. This made the academic instruction even more challenging as there was such a variety of abilities and confidence levels.
• Because of the lower levels of educational completion, there was considerable more anxiety among clients about the academic portion of the program. However, all participants improved their academic skill levels considerably.
• Having two employment partners as well as a silviculture component to the practical training, presented considerable logistical challenges to the Project Co-ordinator and the clients.
• There were considerable extra travel costs for the Port Hope Simpson site. However, most of the members of the CLN were well experienced with this situation and they were able to use video and audio conferencing quite effectively. It did not diminish their strong team spirit at all.
• Similar to Lethbridge, there was a change in Academic Instructor part way through the program. However, different than Lethbridge, the departing Academic Instructor had done a considerable amount of the curriculum design, and although it was a challenge for the incoming Academic Instructor to pick up the course material and learn about the industry, she managed quite well. She also ended up contributing considerable amounts of time after hours and unpaid researching the industry.
• There was a small pool of applicants for the Bridging the Gap – this was partially due to the timing of the program and partially due to the small population and lower community awareness of what was entailed in Bridging the Gap.