The survey, tabled in the territorial legislature in late February, was based on surveys of 1,705 mine employees in 2009 on how they felt about working and living in the territory, which is home to three operating diamond mines, according to CBC News.

Diamond mining is considered to be the Northwest Territories’ most important economic driver, but a longstanding concern has been how best to bring more northern residents into the mining workforce.

The 2009 NWT Survey of Mining Employees was conducted by the NWT Bureau of Statistics on behalf of BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, De Beers and the Government of the Northwest Territories. The survey focused on things diamond mine employees like and dislike about their current community of residence, factors they consider when thinking about relocation and barriers to moving to the Northwest Territories. The survey was designed to shed light on the residency issues faced by diamond mines and the GNWT.

Steve Walsh, who heads the union local that represents workers at BHP Billiton’s Ekati Mine, said informal social chatter among workers confirm the survey’s results.

"Definitely, the closeness to family, as well as the cost of living and the cost of housing are key points,” Walsh told CBC News.

According to the survey, workers identified good jobs and plenty of recreational activities in the N.W.T. as advantages of working in the territory.

For workers who reside in the territory, they like the close proximity to their families, the survey said.

Workers from outside the NWT who come north on two-week shift rotations, said it’s been difficult to be so far from their families. Those same workers also identified high housing and utility costs as major problems.

The survey also indicates that nearly half of NWT residents who work for the mines would likely leave the territory if a good job opportunity came up in the next year. In those cases, the cost of living was cited as a major factor in their desire to move.