TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The federal government of Canada has announced support for a new project to help women advance within the country’s mining industry.

Canada's Minister of Labour and Minister of Status of Women Dr K Kellie Leitch said on Wednesday that the Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiHR) would receive $495 102 for their three-year project that would see a Gender Champions Task Force, comprising mining executives, identify and address the barriers faced by female employees in their companies.

"The Canadian mining industry faces a number of human resources challenges, now and in the years to come. To meet these challenges, we need to attract and retain the right talent, including women.

“This new funding from the government of Canada will allow us to determine what prevents women from advancing in mining and will help us develop the tools the industry needs to address these obstacles,” MiHR executive director Ryan Montpellier said.

The MiHR would develop a number of tools and resources – such as gender-based training, inclusion policies and equitable hiring procedures – which would be implemented and tested in these companies. The resulting tools and best practices would be shared with industry stakeholders.

This project was selected through the Canadian government’s call for proposals entitled Increasing Economic Prosperity for Women.

Since 2007, Canada had provided over $162-million through Status of Women Canada for community-based projects. Federal funding of community-based projects through Status of Women Canada had nearly doubled since 2006/07, supporting more than 780 projects across Canada.

Also, the federal government gave more than $68-million through the Women's Programme at Status of Women Canada for projects that promoted women's economic security and prosperity. Of this amount, more than $18-million had gone to projects that supported women in skilled professional trades and technical professions.

The federal government’s Economic Action Plan 2015 had proposed to modernise Canada's corporate governance framework. These changes included proposed amendments to the Canada Business Corporations Act to promote gender diversity among public companies using the ‘comply or explain’ model of disclosure.