Registration Has Started for OMA Conference in Windsor

04.24.2008

Registrations are rolling in for the Ontario Mining Association conference “Demographics, Global Markets and the Future Workforce” which is being held in Windsor June 9 to 11, 2008. One of the main speakers at the event is celebrity demographer David Foot author of the best selling book Boom, Bust & Echo.Mr. Foot, who is a professor economics at the University of Toronto, has gained global recognition for his work in demographics. His research reflects the relationships between economics and demographics and the resulting implications for both private and public policies. He is a two-time winner of the University of Toronto undergraduate teaching award. At the OMA conference, he will be making a presentation on global demographics and also holding a workshop on what will be the major markets in the future. For the mineral producers in Ontario, the major markets for their products in the future will be different than they are today and they may not be the countries that you would think.

In sticking with the demographics theme, the mining industry nationally is looking for 92,000 new workers over the next decade. Identifying, attracting and retaining these workers is a challenge for every mining company. Part of the program for this OMA event centres on how to make the mining workplace more feminine friendly. While females comprise 47% of the total national workforce, females comprise only 13% of the mining workforce. Four women with various jobs in the mining sector will related their stories and personal career experiences and participants will try to identify strategies for increasing female participation in mining workplaces.

Ontario Minister of Economic Development and Trade Sandra Pupatello will be the featured speaker at one dinner on the program. Her Windsor area Cabinet colleague Finance Minister Dwight Duncan stated in his most recent budget that “mining has been one of Ontario´s great recent success stories.” With some other sectors of the provincial economy going through a period of transition, it will be of interest to all to gain a better perspective on the Government´s perceptions of mining and its contributions to the society and economy of Ontario.

Also on the program are an OMA annual meeting, Board of Directors meeting, an underground salt mine tour, the musical satire of entertainers Bowser & Blue and a golf competition. In addition, there will be a presentation of the inaugural Tom Peters Memorial Mine Reclamation Award. This award is being launched by the OMA in co-operation with the Canadian Land Reclamation Association and the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines with the generous support of Vale Inco.

The venue for this event is the Hilton Hotel in Windsor. For further information on “Demographics, Global Markets and the Future Workforce” contact Peter McBride at the OMA pmcbride@oma.on.ca or call 416-364-9301.