9 Indigenous Sask. pilots-in-training almost ready to hit northern skies

The dreams of nine young Saskatchewan Indigenous people are taking flight. 

The young adults are the first cohort in a fully funded programs that's helping Indigenous people from northern Saskatchewan become professional pilots.

Ground training began in early January for students in the Dziret'ái Pilot Training Program. Some of them have already gone on solo flights.

Taylor Little, 21, is from Whitefish Lake. She had dropped out of university because she couldn't afford tuition. Then she saw the opportunity online to become a pilot.

"I applied because it was a great opportunity," Little said. "You don't just come across being a pilot just anytime. I was pretty excited." 

Little is one of four women in the program, which she said means a lot to her.

"It's great that there's more women coming into this field of work," Little said. "It's pretty inspiring to women and especially Indigenous women."

Several Saskatchewan groups came together to provide this training, including First Nations, mining companies, governments and the northern Indigenous-owned airline RiseAir.

The airline's CEO Derek Nice said he is happy to be supporting home grown talent and that having planes flown by pilots from the north is what the program is all about.

"This is going to be transformative for us," Nice said. "These are some of the best students that have gone through flight training here in Saskatchewan."

Last summer 105 people applied for the program. Out of those 15 went to the second round of selection and RiseAir was left with the best nine for their program.

"They are Indigenous, but they are representative of the strengths of all youth here in the province. They're making their families proud, their communities proud."

The flight program also means a lot to the future pilots and to their communities.

Wesley Mercredi was a store manager in Fond Du Lac, about 800 kilometres north of Saskatoon. Now he's looking forward to the day he gets to fly a plane into his remote community.

"It's going to be very exciting," Mercredi said. "I believe they told us they're going to do an event for our first flight up north, back to our home community, so that's going to be exciting once that happens."

RiseAir plans to hire all nine students after their training at the Mitchinson Flight Centre in Saskatoon has been completed and said work on similar programs has already begun.

Nice said his next project is ensuring every one of his flights has a Dene speaking flight attendant.