Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 611

Natural Resources Minister Greg Rickford says Ring of Fire oversight body needs overhaul – by Peter Koven (National Post – December 19, 2014)

December 19, 2014

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

TORONTO – The Ontario government wants Ottawa to pony up $1 billion for the massive “Ring of Fire” mineral belt, but the federal natural resources minister is warning that key structural challenges still need to be overcome.

Foremost among these is the fact Ontario has stacked the four board seats of the Ring of Fire’s development corporation with nothing but provincial bureaucrats. They are responsible for overseeing infrastructure development in the region.

“We’ve got a problem with that,” Greg Rickford said in an interview. “That’s not a responsible way to deal with taxpayers’ money.”

The Ring of Fire, named after the famous Johnny Cash song, is a vast but very remote mineral belt located in Ontario’s James Bay Lowlands. The region is thought to hold about $60-billion worth of metals, but the federal and provincial governments need to overcome enormous infrastructure challenges to draw investment from the mining sector, especially in an environment of falling commodity prices.

Queen’s Park committed $1 billion to building infrastructure, and has waged a very public campaign asking Ottawa to match it through the federal Building Canada infrastructure fund.

“Your commitment to providing matching federal funding is key to strengthening investor confidence for development of the [Ring],” Ontario mining minister Michael Gravelle said last week in a letter to Mr. Rickford.

Northwestern Ont. transmission line may threaten caribou habitat (CBC News Thunder Bay – December 16, 2014)

January 23, 2015December 18, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay

A new report says caribou in Ontario’s boreal forest are facing increasing man-made threats — and specifically points out a proposed transmission line running between Dryden, Ignace and Pickle Lake.

Anna Baggio of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society’s Wildlands League said the route would disturb prime caribou habitat.

“Let’s not place permanent infrastructure in these really hammered southern caribou ranges,” she said. “And if you have to build some of this infrastructure — if it’s an absolute imperative — then at least situate it along an existing highway.”

Baggio said the province needs to do a better job of living up to its commitment to protect woodland caribou. “If we can protect woodland caribou habitat, then we can protect the habitat of a whole other suite of species,” she said.

“If we don’t do a good job on Boreal caribou, it’s sort of like a canary in the coal mine for us … It shows us that our practices and our intentions in the Boreal forest are not where they need to be.”

Baggio said the notion of ploughing “a transmission line through some of the best remaining intact caribou habitat … is perplexing.

Activist launches boardroom battle over fees to mining financier – by Jacquie McNish (Globe and Mail – December 17, 2014)

December 18, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Globe-trotting junior mining financier Stan Bharti has been targeted by a shareholder activist in a boardroom battle that could test the limits of compensation at money-losing companies.

Mr. Bharti, through his private, family-owned Toronto company Forbes & Manhattan, manages a large portfolio of publicly listed resource startups with mostly undeveloped properties in such remote corners as Kurdistan, Ethiopia and Mongolia. Mr. Bharti and a close-knit group of executives and directors have pocketed millions of dollars in consulting fees, bonuses and other payments at a time when a number of companies managed by Forbes & Manhattan have suffered declining financial health and stock performance.

His roster of advisers and directors includes retired Canadian major-general Lewis MacKenzie, former federal cabinet minister Pierre Pettigrew and Canada’s former ambassador to Iran, Ken Taylor. Mr. Bharti’s most prominent adviser, CNN talk show host Larry King, described himself in a Forbes & Manhattan promotional video as a global ambassador. “I provide the contacts, Stan does the close,” he said. which “equals success.”

In recent years, Mr. Bharti and his family have hosted lavish investor conferences at exclusive resorts, in Mexico and Brazil, featuring vodka-cooling ice sculptures and high-profile businessmen such as Eike Batista and Jim Rogers.

Why Talisman Energy Inc is the first — but not last — victim of the oil price slump – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post – December 17, 2014)

December 17, 2014

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

Senior oil and gas producer Talisman Energy Inc. became the first Canadian oil patch company to surrender to the global oil price crash Tuesday, when it announced its sale to Spain’s Repsol SA for US$8.3 billion in cash after a long campaign to re-focus its global business.

There will be more.

With share prices at garage-sale levels, the whole Canadian energy sector is vulnerable to being picked on by anyone with a war chest, expectations of an oil price recovery or better ideas on how to create value.

“The likelihood for high-profile M&A transactions is almost a guarantee,” said Sonny Mottahed, CEO and managing partner of Black Spruce Merchant Capital in Calgary. “In the environment that we are in today, where you have equity prices reacting dramatically to the drop in the commodity … the intrinsic value of a lot of these companies is far greater than what the market is valuing them at.”

In anticipation of more consolidation, investors pushed up many battered Canadian energy names, with Encana Corp. bouncing 7.4% to close at $14.53, Crescent Point Energy Corp. gaining 10% to close at $24.13; Baytex Energy Corp. gaining 5.7% to $16.21, and Whitecap Resources Inc. gaining 5.4% to $10.99.

B.C. approves $8.8-billion Site C hydroelectric dam – by Justine Hunter and Ian Bailey (Globe and Mail – December 17, 2014)

December 17, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

VICTORIA and Vancouver — The B.C. government has approved the construction of the Site C dam on the Peace River at an estimated cost of almost $8.8-billion, making it the largest public infrastructure project in the province’s history.

But the government will delay the project until next summer and has adjusted the price to be $900-million higher than what BC Hydro had proposed. The project faces a series of lawsuits, and on Tuesday, environmentalists, First Nations and the NDP renewed their opposition to the dam.

Premier Christy Clark, at a news conference in Victoria, said the revised budget reflects “the true cost” of building the dam, but she believes it remains the cheapest option to meet British Columbia’s growing demand for electricity in the future.

“I believe the people of our province will continue to prosper,” she said. “We need to ensure there is power – clean, reliable, sustainable power.”

Site C will be built downstream of the W.A.C. Bennett and Peace Canyon dams in northeastern B.C., and will be the first major hydroelectric dam to be built in the province since completion of the Revelstoke dam in 1984.

Greg Rickford responds to province’s latest Ring of Fire request – by Jody Porter (CBC News Thunder Bay – December 17, 2014)

December 17, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay

Ontario wants $1B from Building Canada Fund for roads and power to remote mineral deposit

Ontario’s plan for the remote Ring of Fire mineral deposit has “serious structural problems” according to the federal Natural Resources Minister, and that’s why Greg Rickford says Canada is cautious about partnering with the province to build roads and power lines.

Ontario’s Minister of Northern Development and Mines wrote to Rickford last week, asking for a meeting to discuss the province’s proposal for $1 billion under the Building Canada Fund.

“We need you to be actively engaged in these discussions as we chart a path forward,” Michael Gravelle wrote in a letter dated Dec. 11. “Your government’s acknowledgement of a matching $1 billion commitment to support infrastructure development is key.”

Rickford said he is happy to meet with Gravelle but is not so happy with the way the province is approaching development of what both levels of government see as a key resource.

“We’re waiting for the province to maybe move beyond the letter-writing and get a submission to us, technically, about a priority and a priority project and we’ll move forward on that,” Rickford said.

He outlined what he describes as three key structural problems with Ontario’s approach that “only the province can resolve.”

Resource revenue sharing ‘not going away’ – by Jason Warick (Regina Leader Post – December 15, 2014)

December 16, 2014

http://www.leaderpost.com/index.html

“This is something we need to get right,” Cam Broten says

The Saskatchewan government should join the growing number of other provinces and consider sharing natural resource revenue with First Nations, say experts.

“How do you reconcile if you don’t share the resources?” said Vancouver lawyer Tom Isaac, author of Aboriginal Law: Commentary, Cases and Materials. Isaac, a University of Saskatchewan law graduate who represents governments and resource companies, said any revenue sharing must be sustainable and measured, but the issue “is not going away.”

Resource revenue sharing hit the national stage last week when former Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations Chief Perry Bellegarde was elected to head the national Assembly of First Nations. In a fiery speech to AFN delegates in Winnipeg, Bellegarde vowed resource development would occur only after First Nations’ concerns were addressed.

“We weren’t meant to be poor in our own lands,” Bellegarde said. Saskatchewan’s Energy and Resources Minister, Bill Boyd, was not available for an interview this weekend. In a written statement, the government said its position has not changed.

“Our province’s resources belong to everyone in the province. Revenues from Saskatchewan’s resources belong to all Saskatchewan people, and everyone, including First Nations, benefit from that revenue,” read the statement.

A new cold war: Denmark gets aggressive, stakes huge claim in Race for the Arctic – by Tristin Hopper (National Post – December 16, 2014)

December 16, 2014

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

For years, the Race for the Arctic had promised to be one of the most gentlemanly land grabs in history: Using only science and a whiff of diplomacy, the oil-rich Arctic Ocean could be peacefully divvied up between Russia, Canada, the United States and Europe.

That is, until the tiny nation of Denmark approached the United Nations on Monday with a staggering claim to nearly one third of the total prize — including the North Pole.

“It is ironic that the only country that right now could be said to be acting provocatively in the Arctic is Denmark,” said Michael Byers, the Vancouver-based author of Who Owns the Arctic? speaking to Danish media on Monday.

Canada has not yet wrapped up its final claim to areas of the Arctic Ocean now considered international waters, although Ottawa has vowed to shoot for 1.2 million square kilometres of ocean, including the North Pole. There is no definitive scientific evidence that Canada has any claim to the North Pole, but that did not stop Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander from issuing Santa Claus with Canadian citizenship last year.

On Monday, Rob Huebert at the University of Calgary’s Centre for Military and Strategic Studies called Denmark’s claim evidence that it was wrong to ever believe that the Arctic could be divvied up simply with geological data.

Ontario needs its pride back – by Kelly McParland (National Post – December 16, 2014)

December 16, 2014

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

I’m half-way convinced that some weird political inversion has taken place, so that Ontario and Quebec have somehow ended up with the other’s government.

It’s like The Prince and the Pauper, or any of the long line of imitations that have followed that tale, in which children are somehow switched at birth and end up in the wrong household. It feels like Quebec Premier should be running Ontario, and Ontario’s Kathleen Wynne should really be premier of Quebec.

There are new signs of this almost every day. The Montreal Gazette reported Monday that Mr. Couillard’s government is sharply reducing funding for Fete Nationale, one of the public celebrations the separatist Parti Quebecois poured money into as a symbol of Quebec’s detachment from Canada. It’s held a week before Canada Day, celebrated only in Quebec, and was to get $5.4 million from the PQ in 2016. Instead, the Liberals will provide 40% less, or about $3.4 million.

This is the latest cost-reduction measure introduced by Mr. Couillard as he tries to eliminate Quebec’s deficit – which is a mere shadow of Ontario’s – and end the province’s long tradition of chronic over-spending. He hasn’t shied from controversy in doing so, going so far as to reform the hallowed $7-a-day daycare program, introducing a sliding scale of fees in its place.

Falling oil price puts Ottawa’s surplus at risk – by Bill Curry (Globe and Mail – December 16, 2014)

December 16, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

OTTAWA — Finance Minister Joe Oliver is acknowledging the dramatic drop in oil prices will take a further bite out of government revenues, making Ottawa’s previously declared surplus less certain.

The government already shaved billions off of its revenue forecasts when it released a fiscal update on Nov. 12, when the price of North American crude was around $81 (U.S.). That price closed Monday below $56.

As the price of oil continued to slip after his fiscal update, Mr. Oliver initially maintained that these adjustments were conservative enough to capture lower prices without affecting Ottawa’s bottom line. But he said Monday the further drop will have an impact.

“We’re not about to come out with a number at this point. However, we’re confident we will achieve a budgetary balance next year,” he said Monday, before a meeting of provincial and territorial finance ministers in Ottawa.

The government is forecasting a surplus of only $1.6-billion, which would be at risk of slipping into deficit territory should oil prices stay low. Ottawa has set aside $3-billion for unforeseen events, and several economists said Monday that should be enough to maintain a small surplus.

Why B.C. desperately wants to fill your stocking with coal – by Jason Kirby (MACLEAN’S Magazine – December 15, 2014)

December 15, 2014

http://www.macleans.ca/

Coal, a major B.C. export, suffers from a global glut and falling prices. Sound familiar?

Hey kids, wouldn’t you really rather get a lump of coal this Christmas? That’s the message from the B.C. government, which sent out this rather odd email to reporters late Friday (excerpt)…

Stuff your stockings with B.C. coal

VICTORIA – No matter whether you light the menorah, trim the tree or setup the Festivus Pole, your holiday activities likely have a connection to a lump of coal mined right here in British Columbia.

From the planes, trains and automobiles that are used to transport holiday gifts, to the stores where those gifts are sold – they all require steel. That steel is made using metallurgical coal.

Planning to drive to the mall over the holidays? There are approximately three million cars in B.C. and it takes roughly 630 kilograms of metallurgical coal to produce a single vehicle.

Nothing says Canadian winter like lacing up the ice skates for a game of hockey. The steel blades that make breakaway goals possible start out as metallurgical coal.

Cree walkers against uranium mining arrive in Montreal after 850 km walk (CBC News Montreal – December 15, 2014)

December 15, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal

Group delivers message to environmental protection agency on final day of hearings into uranium mining

A group of Cree protesters have reached their final destination after completing an 850-km march to protest against uranium exploration and mining in Quebec.

The group arrived in downtown Montreal today to deliver a message to the province’s environmental protection agency, known as the BAPE, which is holding the last of a series of public hearings on uranium exploration. They will make a presentation at the hearings this evening.

About 20 people made the full journey, walking an average of about 30 km a day over a three-weeks period, often in frigid temperatures.

The group left Mistissini, Que., a town northeast of Chibougamau, in the James Bay region, in late November. Youth Grand Chief Joshua Iserhoff said those they met along the way overwhelmingly supported a ban on uranium mining.

Uranium extraction has been on the table in Mistissini since 2006. A Boucherville-based company, Strateco Resources, has invested $120 million into developing a uranium mine in Mistissini in the last ten years.

Transparency Act : Resource company payments to First Nations unveiled (CBC News Sudbury – December 14, 2014)

December 15, 2014

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury

Most First Nations in northeastern Ontario receive funds from a mining, forestry or power company

For the first time, the amount of money northeastern Ontario First Nations receive from agreements with private resource companies has been made public. The figures were included in financial documents posted under the new First Nations Transparency Act.

Many bands have been reluctant to discuss specific figures in the past and the impact benefit agreements often prohibit the companies from discussing payment to neighbouring First Nations without band permission.

Some of the most surprising numbers in the newly released financial records are for Moose Cree First Nation on the James Bay Coast.

Its balance sheet shows $1.5 million coming from Detour Gold last year. Also listed under First Nation revenue is $3 million in company stock. But it also shows Moose Cree losing $6.2 million last year in the sale of Detour Gold shares.

Repeated phone calls and emails to the First Nation’s elected officials and administrative staff were not returned. Most First Nations in northeastern Ontario do get some amount of money from a mining, forestry or power company.

All of the bands along the James Bay Coast receive money from DeBeers, for its Victor diamond mine near Attawapiskat.

Asbestos revealed as Canada’s top cause of workplace death – by Tavia Grant (Globe and Mail – December 15, 2014)

December 15, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Asbestos exposure is the single largest on-the-job killer in Canada, accounting for more than a third of total workplace death claims approved last year and nearly a third since 1996, new national data obtained by The Globe and Mail show. The 368 death claims last year alone represent a higher number than fatalities from highway accidents, fires and chemical exposures combined.

Since 1996, almost 5,000 approved death claims stem from asbestos exposure, making it by far the top source of workplace death in Canada.

The numbers come as the federal government – long a supporter of the asbestos industry – continues to allow the import of asbestos-containing products such as pipes and brake pads. A Globe and Mail investigation earlier this year detailed how Ottawa has failed to caution its citizens about the impact that even low levels of asbestos can have on human health. Canada’s government does not clearly state that all forms of asbestos are known human carcinogens. Dozens of other countries including Australia, Britain, Japan and Sweden have banned asbestos.

Canada was one of the world’s largest exporters of asbestos for decades, until 2011, when the last mine in Quebec closed. The mineral’s legacy remains, as it was widely used in everything from attic insulation to modelling clay in schools and car parts and in a variety of construction materials such as cement, tiles and shingles. Health experts warn long latency periods mean deaths from asbestos will climb further.

The Saudi standoff: Oil-rich nation takes on world’s high-cost producers – by Shawn McCarthy and Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – December 13, 2014)

December 15, 2014

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

OTTAWA and AL KHOBAR, SAUDI ARABIA – In the high-stakes contest between the United States, the biggest shale oil producer, and Saudi Arabia, the biggest oil exporter, America has blinked first.

The OPEC refusal to cut production at its November meeting was widely seen as the declaration of a price war against booming U.S. shale oil producers, which had sent their country’s oil production soaring. Saudis had watched as their market share dropped precipitously in the world’s biggest oil-consuming nation, and they wanted to send a clear message across the global energy market that they weren’t about to back off.

Oil prices have been in freefall ever since. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, sank another 3 per cent Friday to $61.85 (U.S.) a barrel, while West Texas intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, dropped 3.6 per cent to $57.81, extending its slide from well over $100 a barrel in the summer.

If the global oil standoff pits the industry stalwart Saudi Arabia against the surging U.S. rival, other global players are coping with the pricing fallout, including Canada. Oil companies around the world are being forced to revisit their spending and production plans for 2015, and in the offices towers of downtown Calgary, those changes are already well under way.

Cenovus Energy Inc. this week slashed its capital budget by 15 per cent and signalled more to come. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. has said a quarter of its $8.6-billion (Canadian) budget is “flexible” and could be deferred if prices don’t recover.