Canadian/International Media Resource Articles – Page 191

Not another wimp out [Comparisons to Brazilian Takeover of Inco] – by Martin Goldfarb (Toronto Star-April 18, 2011)

June 10, 2015April 18, 2011

The Toronto Star, which is the largest circulation newspaper in the country, has an enormous impact on Canada’s federal and provincial politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Martin Goldfarb is principal at Goldfarb Intelligence Marketing and was official Liberal party pollster from 1972 to 1984.

Inco is an example worth remembering. At one point Inco was
a global leader, dominating a mining category. It was the soul
of the city of Sudbury and added stature to Ontario. It produced
intellectual property in the mining industry that was second to
none and respected globally. It provided work to miners, engineers, lawyers, bankers and others. So much of this was lost. The intellectual property and pride that Inco brought to Canada,
Ontario and Sudbury are all but gone. What happened? Management ceased to lead. In so doing it became vulnerable to takeover. (Martin Goldfarb-April 18, 2011)

Australia said No to Singapore. Australia decided its stock exchange is not for sale. Now we in Canada are thinking about whether or not the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) should be taken over by the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

A country is more than a business. There are totems in our country that define our personality, help create our character and engender pride, independence and a sense of our own charisma. Some arise from our geography (the Rockies, the Arctic), some from our natural resources (oil, water, lumber, maple syrup) and some from government (national health care). All help give us a sense of who we are.

But there are other totems in Canada that are not a function of our geography, our geology or our government. These are institutions created by the citizens of our country in business and academia — our universities and our internationally recognized businesses, such as RIM today, and in the past, Inco and Falconbridge. Inco and Falconbridge have disappeared but should never have been allowed to do so. A dose of economic nationalism is good for our soul. In some circumstances, profit should be second to the national interest. National interests help define who we are.

South Africa the unlikely new kid on the BRIC block- by Geoffrey York (Globe and Mail-April 14, 2011)

April 14, 2011

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous impact and influence on Canada’s political and business elite as well as the rest of the country’s print, radio and television media.

Mr. Zuma could scarcely conceal his exuberance as he expressed his gratitude to the Chinese leaders who had invited South Africa to join the BRIC group. But his presence at the summit is as much about politics as it is business. The club that invited him is increasingly positioning itself as a counterweight to the Western economies, and it needed to recruit an African member, no matter how small it might be on the global stage.

Economically, the BRIC group is already a success. The BRIC economies have grown so dramatically in the past few years that they could overtake the combined size of the G7 nations – the Western-dominated group of economies – within the next decade. Two of the four BRIC founders, China and Brazil, are now ranked among the world’s five biggest economies, with China overtaking Japan last year to rank behind only the United States in size.

Why, then, did they invite the world’s 27th-biggest economy to join their club? Jim O’Neill, the Goldman Sachs economist who coined the “BRIC” term in a 2001 research paper, said he is baffled by the decision to invite South Africa into the group. Other countries in the emerging world – including Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey and South Korea – are much bigger than South Africa, he noted. “It is tough to see how South Africa matches up to these four countries, never mind the BRIC countries,” he wrote in an early assessment.

Protect the [mine financing] cluster [Toronto] – by Janet Ecker (National Post-April 14, 2011)

April 14, 2011April 14, 2011

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. This article was originally published in the Financial Post section on April 14, 2011.

Janet Ecker is president of the Toronto Financial Services Alliance.

The proposed merger of TMX Group and the London Stock Exchange has provoked uncharacteristicallystrong and diverse reactions within the financial community. Those mixed views were clearly displayed during four days of hearings on the deal before the select committee of the Ontario Legislature. How they will judge the strong arguments for and against the deal in their report later this month is anyone’s guess.

Whatever their verdict, and those of the review processes yet to come, we must remember that Toronto is the global leader in mining and metals financing, with TMX playing a significant role. With or without this deal, all sides agree on the need to retain that leadership.

The Toronto exchange (TSX or TSX Venture) lists nearly six in 10 of the world’s publicly listed mining companies, and last year they raised $17.8billion in equity capital -60% of the world’s total for the sector.

[Minmetals bid for Equinox] When is a miner Canadian? (It’s not as simple as you think) – by Boyd Erman (Globe and Mail-April 5, 2011)

April 5, 2011

The multiparty merger fest that’s reshaping the copper mining industry in Canada has one very odd twist: The companies are here, but the metal is not.

The main assets in Canada for Lundin Mining Corp. , Inmet Mining Corp. and Equinox Minerals Ltd. are office space, Toronto Stock Exchange listings and investor interest. None is focused on Canada as a place to produce.

China’s Minmetals Resources Ltd., the interloper that on Sunday announced an intention to buy Equinox, is the only player that highlights its assets in Canada – a couple of exploration projects in the country’s North.

Inmet, which tried and failed to merge with Lundin, had an operating mine in Canada until last year, but no more; it now focuses on projects and exploration in countries such as Peru and Finland. The main assets for Lundin, the target of an Equinox takeover bid, are across the Atlantic, in Africa and Europe. Equinox’s big project is in Africa.

The Outer Limits [Mining the Moon, Arctic and Underwater]- by Peter Koven (National Post – Apr. 5, 2011)

April 5, 2011

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. This article was originally published in the Financial Post Magazine on April 5, 2011. pkoven@nationalpost.com

Mining the moon? The Arctic? Underwater? These one-time crazy ideas are fast becoming reality as companies challenge geographical boundaries to find precious commodities.

David Heydon remembers exactly when he was struck by the idea of mining underwater. He was on a flight from New York to his native Australia in 2002. His plans for a dot-com airline venture in the United States had collapsed after the September 11 terror attacks the previous year, and he wasn’t sure what would come next. Trying to get his mind off his failed business, Heydon looked out the window and saw nothing but water. A geologist and mining engineer by training, he couldn’t help but think to himself, “There must be huge mineral potential down there.”

When he pursued the idea, he was met with a lot of blank looks from industry types. Their thinking at the time was that since metal prices were still in the midst of a multi-decade bear market, why would anyone want to look for more minerals underwater? And, if this was such a good idea, why weren’t any of the major mining companies even considering it?

Fast forward nine years and Heydon, 55, looks like a visionary. Demand for many commodities has reached uncharted levels, prices are at or near record highs almost across the board, and the industry admits that grades are declining at the world’s largest mines. Plenty of other companies such as heavyweights De Beers and AngloGold Ashanti are now following Heydon’s lead and positioning themselves for the inevitability of a sea-floor mining sector. ” To meet demand, the mining industry must move offshore as oil and gas did years ago,” Heydon says.

Time for Ontario Universities to Specialize in Programs They Do Best: [Ontario Provincial] Report – by Ciara Byrne (October 26, 2010)

April 2, 2011

About the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario

The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario is an arm’s-length agency of the Government of Ontario dedicated to ensuring the continued improvement of the postsecondary education system in Ontario. The Council was created through the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario Act, 2005. It is mandated to conduct research, evaluate the postsecondary education system, and provide policy recommendations to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities with a view to enhance the quality, access, and accountability of Ontario’s higher education system.

The report is available here: TheThe Benefits of Greater Differentiation of Ontario’s University Sector

Ciara Byrne, The Canadian Press: Tuesday, October 26, 2010

TORONTO – Ontario universities should play to their strengths instead of trying to be everything to everyone, the head of an advisory body on higher learning said Tuesday, as he called for schools to focus on the programs they do best.

A report commissioned by Ontario’s deputy post-secondary education minister by the Higher Education Quality Council is calling on universities to pick a specialty and stick with it, meaning Specialty U could be the future in Ontario.

“You will have the institutions doing what they do best, not trying to do what everybody else is doing,” council president Harvey Weingarten said Tuesday.

Who will pay the bills for the education dream? – by Don Drummond and Daniel R. Woolf (Toronto Star-April 1, 2011)

April 2, 2011

The Toronto Star, which is the largest circulation newspaper in the country, has an enormous impact on Canada’s federal and provincial politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Don Drummond is Matthews Fellow in global public policy at Queen’s University. Daniel R. Woolf is principal and vice-chancellor of Queen’s University.

We have reached the point in the post-secondary education system where significant
new thinking is required to reconcile a higher participation rate with the reality of finite
government resources. This will require willingness to rethink a system that cannot be
sustained. (Don Drummond and Daniel R. Woolf – April 1, 2011)

In this knowledge-based era, the economic spoils are increasingly going to those with higher education. In recognition, Canadian governments are setting ambitious targets for post-secondary education. Commitments to higher education are a part of every federal party’s campaign platform and this week’s Ontario budget includes funding for more than 60,000 new post-secondary education spaces over the next five years.

But owing to governments’ fiscal woes, students and their families will continue to bear a rising portion of the total costs of a quality post-secondary education. For many, this will remain manageable and the return will be a lifetime of higher earnings and increased quality of life. But without dramatic reforms to Canada’s financial supports for students, more and more will find the path to higher education blocked by financial obstacles. The damage will carry across generations because a key determinant of pursuing higher education is parents’ level of education.

About 70 per cent of the jobs of the future are projected to require some form of higher education.

Facing record debt, Ontario appoints Drummond to revamp public services – by Rob Ferguson (Toronto Star-March 29, 2011)

April 2, 2011

The Toronto Star, which is the largest circulation newspaper in the country, has an enormous impact on Canada’s federal and provincial politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Queen’s Park Bureau

Faced with $10.3 billion in annual interest payments on its record debt, Ontario is scrambling to revamp its public services by appointing respected economist Don Drummond to lead the effort.

And the government is looking at an expanded privatization of its ServiceOntario operations, which now provide documents like birth and marriage certificates, to see if more private-sector innovation could lead to improvements.

Finance Minister Dwight Duncan tasked Drummond — formerly the chief economist of TD Bank and once a senior finance official with the federal government — to advise on ways to speed the paydown of next year’s $16.3 billion deficit, which will boost Ontario’s net debt to $241.4 billion.

Read more

To fix Ontario’s finances, Drummond ‘absolutely’ has to consider health care, education – by Richard Blackwell (Globe and Mail-March 29, 2011)

April 2, 2011

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous impact and influence on Canada’s political and business elite as well as the rest of the country’s print, radio and television media.

The economist in charge of figuring out how to wrestle Ontario’s budget deficit to the ground says he will look at every aspect of the province’s spending, including the key sectors of health care and education.

Don Drummond, a former Toronto-Dominion Bank chief economist who has advised federal and provincial governments many times in the past, has been appointed chairman of a commission with a mandate to figure out how to rejig the province’s public service so it is more efficient.

The province, in its budget tabled on Tuesday, said the Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services “will not make recommendations that would increase taxes or lead to the privatization of health care or education.” And Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said Mr. Drummond has “rejected the slash and burn approach.”

U of T’s forestry school faces the axe – by James Bradshaw (Globe and Mail-April 2, 2011)

April 11, 2011April 2, 2011

After 104 years of seeing the forest for the trees, dwindling enrolment has left the future of the faculty of forestry at the University of Toronto in doubt.

It was Canada’s first forestry faculty, and North America’s second, but is now also one of the smallest, with a dozen faculty teaching fewer than 80 graduate students. For that reason, the administration has deemed it “not financially viable,” said dean Sandy Smith.

Canada has 10 per cent of the world’s remaining forest cover, and a quarter of its undisturbed frontier forest, but enrolment in forestry programs has dropped across the country, as well as outside it. In a 2009 survey of 65,000 graduating high school students, just six chose forestry as their preferred discipline.

Vale confirms CEO Agnelli’s exit – by Brenda Bouw (Globe and Mail-April 2, 2011)

April 2, 2011

The ouster of Roger Agnelli as chief executive officer of Brazilian mining giant Vale SA signals a tightening government grip on the country’s resource sector and heightens concerns over rising political risk in Latin America’s largest economy.

Rio de Janeiro-based Vale confirmed a search is under way to replace Mr. Agnelli, who has held the top job at the world’s largest iron ore producer for the past decade.

Vale said its controlling shareholder Valepar, majority held by the Brazilian government, hired a headhunting firm to find a replacement for Mr. Agnelli, 51, when his mandate ends in May. Valepar will hold shareholder meetings next week to nominate a new CEO from a list of three candidates, Vale said.

Toronto-based metals executive director Tito Botelho Martins, 47, is seen as the leading candidate to replace Mr. Agnelli.

Vale’s man in Canada [Tito Martins] touted as new chief in Brazil – Andy Hoffman (Globe and Mail-March 31, 2011)

March 31, 2011March 31, 2011

Tito Botelho Martins has endured a string of long and difficult winters in Canada. Now he’s in line for a triumphant return to sunny Rio de Janeiro.

The Toronto-based executive is being touted as the leading candidate to replace Roger Agnelli as the chief executive officer of Brazil’s Vale SA (VALE-N32.92-0.05-0.15%), the world’s top iron ore producer and one of the biggest mining companies on the planet.

Mr. Agnelli, the flashy former investment banker who has steered an aggressive decade-long expansion of Vale’s international operations, has fallen out of favour with Brazil’s government over corporate strategy. Unhappy with Mr. Agnelli’s perceived failure to invest enough in Brazilian mining and steel projects, Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff is understood to be using the government’s leverage as a key shareholder of Vale (through state pension funds), to force Mr. Agnelli to step aside.

Newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported that Mr. Martins, who was parachuted in to run Vale’s nickel and copper mining business from Toronto in early 2009, will be named Vale’s new CEO.

[Canada Mining] Underground Takeover – by Mike Blanchfield (Sharp April, 2011)

March 23, 2011March 23, 2011

Sharp is Canada’s largest men’s lifestyle magazine, covering fashion, technology, cars, food, booze, culture and current events from an intelligent Canadian perspective. Subscribe to the magazine and the Sharp Insider newsletter at Sharpformen.com

Mike Blanchfield covers international affairs for The Canadian Press in Ottawa.

Underground Takeover – Mike Blanchfield

Foreign Companies are lining up to buy the extraction rights to Canadian oil, nickel and potash and spending billions in the process. Are we selling our birthright?

The town of Kitimat was born in the brash 1950s, the product of a successful marriage between herculean feats of engineering and unabashed visions of grandeur.

Canadian captains of industry carved the town out of old growth forest at the end of the Kitimat River, blasting an industry out of British Columbia’s rugged Coast Mountain range that would sustain its people for the next half-century. The engineers of Alcan – then the Aluminum Company of Canada – saw a rich future in this rugged northwestern BC terrain. The company built the town over four years, as 35,000 workers bored a 16-kilometre tunnel through the mountains and erected a massive hydroelectric dam and aluminum smelter. In August 1954, when Kitimat produced its first batch of aluminum, Prince Phillip was on hand to help celebrate the day.

Miners should dig deeper – by William Watson (Financial Post- March 17, 2011)

March 17, 2011

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. This article was originally published in the Financial Post on March 17, 2011.

Mining companies pay just 9% in corporate taxes, while retailers fork out 23%

Here in Canada we may be lumberjacks, to paraphrase the famous Monty Python song, but we’re not OK. Or at least we may be OK in an overall sense but we’ve never been very OK about being lumberjacks. Hewing wood, drawing water and digging for ores for a living, even if it has given us a very good living, has always been a source of shame for us. Couldn’t we find something, well, harder and more demanding of cleverness in order to earn our way in the world?

Hewing, drawing and digging all seem so mindless. They’re not, of course. Done the modern way, they all involve much more brain power than brawn. But still we’re sheepish.

Which makes the results of a new study from a couple of U.S. business school researchers all the more puzzling. Douglas Shackelford of the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Kevin Markle at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth have just published a comprehensive study of the corporate taxes paid by 11,602 public corporations from 82 countries from 1988 to 2009. They trace corporate ownership structures across countries and are mainly interested in whether multinational companies can manage their affairs so their worldwide tax burden doesn’t much depend on where they locate. They find that in fact domicile does matter, which is an interesting result in this supposed age of footloose capital. But it’s their comparison of tax rates by industry that caught my eye.

Ring of Fire buring issue for Cliffs – Peter Koven (National Post-March 10, 2011)

March 16, 2011

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper. This article was originally published in the Financial Post on March 10, 2011. pkoven@nationalpost.com

Bill Boor knows he is in a tricky situation with the Ring of Fire, and that whatever decision he announces in the coming months will upset a lot of people.

“It’s a byproduct of what I think has been a pretty transparent approach that we’ve taken here,” the president of ferroalloys at Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. said in an interview at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conference.

“You can be very transparent and try to work in good faith to come to the right answer, or you can keep your cards close to your chest, don’t get people excited and just slam an answer down, which I think is less likely to be optimal.”

Cliffs is leading development of the Ring of Fire, an ultra-rich source of chromite and other metals located in a very remote corner of the James Bay Lowlands in Northern Ontario. The provincial government views it as crucial for economic development in the North, where it is expected to become the next major Canadian mining camp.