Hometown: Salmon Arm, BC
Program: Plumbing and Pipefitting applied certificate
The best advice Monique Wills received at Saskatchewan Polytechnic was from her first-year plumbing instructor: Use the right tool for the right job. "Being as he wasn't the tallest or beefiest man, he knew you have to use your brains to help you along," says Monique. "As a woman in the trades, that was the best advice ever!"
Monique has put it to use, working as a night shift pipefitter at the McClean Lake uranium mill in northern Saskatchewan. There, she's the only Aboriginal woman pipefitter on the job. "You don't have to be a monster of a guy to do this work, you just have to think," she says.
Initially Monique, whose family is from the James Smith Cree Nation, upgraded her high school marks at Sask Polytech, followed by her Process Operator tickets and then her Red Seal Plumbing ticket. Next on the list is Steamfitter certification. "My future is limitless, and I have a satisfying career with many challenges ahead that are good for the soul."
"Use the right tool for the right job."