Indigenous youth and young adults explore the world of aviation through event at the Nanaimo Airport

Heald (pictured in front of the flight simulator) said the sense of adventure flying with the Air Force has a very big appeal to him. Photo: Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7fm

To inspire Indigenous youth and young adults with the world of aviation and aerospace, the Nanaimo Airport YCD hosted an event to highlight the wonders and opportunities in the industry.

In cooperation with Indigenous LIFT Collective, Alkan Air, Elevate Aviation Learning Centre, Gulf Island Seaplanes and elibird aero, the Nanaimo Airport hosted the Give Them Wings event to introduce Indigenous youth and young adults to aviation and aerospace-related careers.

CHLY attended the event on August 13 with about 30 participants with the live backdrop of the hustle and bustle of the airport.

Keith Granbois is the Chief Financial Officer & VP of Business Development for YCD. He said this event came together as Indigenous outreach is very important. They want to provide opportunities for Indigenous youth to get exposure to aviation and see the opportunities for careers.

“There's such a need and a demand for people in the aviation sector and a big one is there seem to be a lot of people who just don't recognize aviation as being a really good career,” Granbois said. “There's a lot of good business types of jobs but also trades, and right now, it just seems like people aren't pushing trades as much.”

He said right now aircraft maintenance engineers are one of the most in-demand jobs in aviation

“So there was a pilot shortage that seems to be working its way through, but the people that actually maintain the aircraft, if there are not enough people to maintain the aircraft, planes aren't even getting up in the sky–there is no need for the pilots,” Granbois said. “So aircraft maintenance engineering is a great job, well-paying job, just there's a big shortage of workers right now, and it's a great career to get into.”

He said that youth interested in aviation should speak with their career guidance counsellors in school as there are many different career opportunities, and many different education journeys to take.

Participants of the event got a behind-scenes look at the airport with tours of the grounds and equipment. They also met with industry professionals, tried their hand at flying a plane with a flight simulator, and learned about aviation careers and opportunities with Give Them Wings partners.

Dina Jammaz is an air traffic controller and is the director of community engagement and Indigenous partnerships for Elevate Aviation. She said Elevate Aviation is a not-for-profit meant to encourage more women and underrepresented groups to pursue aviation as a career. She said they give a platform for women and underrepresented groups to thrive and succeed through mentorship, bursaries, and skills training. 

She said the largest barrier for women and underrepresented groups working in aviation is simply the lack of awareness of the opportunities.

“Traditionally, careers in aviation were something men would do, and it's just a very specific group of men. So like most of us, we tend to do what we know, like maybe what our dad does or what our mom does, and go into a more typical, traditional role,” Jammaz said. “So bringing out all these women with careers in aviation to talk to other women, makes them aware that these jobs exist and they can do them, and we tell our stories and how we got into them, and makes it more reachable. But the awareness is huge, and then the mentorship following the awareness is also huge to help them get to where they need to be.”

Jammaz said that growing up her dad loved aviation and would take her flying, but it wasn’t until she was 26 years old that she became interested in flying.

“I was not happy with my job, with my life, and it was a good time for me to start over. My mom asked me, ‘okay, this is your opportunity, what have you always wanted to do?’ I said, ‘fly an airplane,’” Jammaz said. “That just came out of nowhere for me and for her, we both went, ‘what?’ And I went, ‘yeah, I really want to fly an airplane. I want to be a pilot.’”

She said it was during her flight training that she learned about air traffic control.

“So while I was doing my flight training–and this happens to everybody that learns how to fly–you talk to an air traffic controller in the tower, and it's very intimidating, it's really scary. So I asked them, ‘may I come up and visit the tower?’” Jammaz said. “I went up and looked around and went, ‘what? What is this? How come I didn't know about it.’ So I applied to become an air traffic controller.”

She said there are many jobs in aviation, but many people don't know they exist.

“If you think about it, someone's got to design an airplane, build the airplane, paint the airplane, fly the airplane, ensure safety on the airplane, fuel the airplane, park the airplane, build the airport, clean the airport, run the airport, be in the tower,” Jammaz said. “There's so much someone has to do all the data planning for the airlines, for their customers, for their services, for the routing. At NAV Canada, there's human resources, there's lawyers, there's aerospace planners. There's such a huge variety of jobs in aviation that people just don't know about and that's our mission, to get that information out there and to help people get in there.”

She said 19 per cent of North American air traffic controllers are women, only 9 to 11 percent of commercial pilots are female, and less than three per cent of aircraft maintenance engineers are women.

She said these types of events are important to introduce the next generation, who may have never thought about a career in aviation.

“I honestly believe, even if you did change one person's life and they became someone in aviation, there's now a role model in that community, and someone people can look at and say, ‘she's a pilot, she's an aircraft maintenance engineer,’” Jammaz said. “They just have that one role model makes it's going to snowball.”

Stuart Myers is an Indigenous advanced care paramedic with British Columbia Emergency Health Services and works as an advanced care flight paramedic based out of Nanaimo. He does medical transportation across the province.

He said at 19 years old he got into the career because of his passion for helping people.

“I got my pilot's license when I was 16. I started off going down the pathway of commercial aviation and realized I had more of a passion to go into emergency medical services. I still have a pilot's license, I'm not current, but I'm fortunate enough now I get to fly,” Myers said. “I get the opportunity to fly, not only in the fixed wings, but I get opportunities to work with critical care teams and flying helicopters as well.”

He said events like Give Them Wings are important to inspire the next generation of Indigenous youth to work in aviation.

“It's a fantastic job. There's so much to do, there's so much to see,” Myers said. “The province is beautiful, the lands that we fly over, the places we go. It's really a wonderful profession, and I'm blessed, and thankful that I have that opportunity.”

Benjamin Heald was one of the participants in the event. At 20 years old, Heald already had an interest in aviation, so when he heard of the event he thought it was right up his alley.

He said the day was filled with a lot of learning opportunities and he got to try his hands at flying over the Comox Valley region in a flight simulator.

“Then we just spent some time in a flight simulator and that was outstanding. I got my hands on the controls for a little bit, right, which is, it was really cool, very touchy controls, but the gentleman who built the simulator was there and was outstanding, you could tell that he had a genuine passion for it,” Heald said.

Heald said he always thought about joining the military but also has an interest in physical science which he said is highly applicable within the Air Force. He said the sense of adventure flying with the Air Force has a big appeal to him.

“Everyone wants to be a pilot, you know, everyone wants to be Tom Cruise–Top Gun. If I can make it, I'd love to, but if not, I just, I just want to be a part of it,” Heald said.

He said the biggest takeaway from the event is that the world of aviation is vast. 

“There's a lot to know–a lot of complexities, it has kind of struck me that all my first step needs to just be getting out there and figuring everything out. Like figuring out what I want to do and just meeting people,” Heald said. “There's been a lot of great people today who've come to me and told me what they would do in my situation say,’ Hey, you're young, I would do this, I would do that. There's so many opportunities for you.’ I'm kind of realizing how many good opportunities there are for me.”

For now, Heald said he is looking at ways he can get involved with the aviation scene around Vancouver Island while he looks into his education for down on the line. Hopefully one day he will fulfil his dreams and finally take flight.
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.