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Canadian Media Resource Articles

Stephen Harper Arctic tour: Big hopes, bigger challenges – by Tonda MacCharles (Toronto Star – August 24, 2013)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has a strong vision for Canada’s North, but what stands out in his latest trip to the region is the immense challenge of making it a reality.

RAGLAN MINE, QUE. — It was a long way to come for what seems like comparatively little. Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived in Inuit territory Friday in northern Quebec, 400 kilometres above the tree line, to visit a nickel mine and talk about clean energy.

Or at least the exciting possibility of it. Last year, the Conservative government injected $720,000 into a feasibility test that one day may help resolve the problem of shipping diesel to the North to power many Arctic communities and lower costs of massive mining developments trying to operate far from hydro dams and other sources of energy.

Yet like so much of what the Conservative government leader has tried to do on his eighth trip to the Arctic, what stands out is the immense challenge of it all. Harper has defended his record and called his investments in the North “groundbreaking,” though he has not quite lived up to his early boastful promises of armed icebreakers and brand-new deepwater sea ports for the region.

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Group pushes for railway expansion in Canada – by Simon Kent (Toronto Sun – August 24, 2013)

http://www.torontosun.com/home

TORONTO – Around the world there is a quiet revolution brewing. Everywhere except Canada, that is. It’s based on shared principles and cuts across all political divides by uniting disparate communities through a single, common goal.

No, it’s not a religion, faith or creed. It wants a return to railways as an efficient way to move people and produce as modern roads and skies become more crowded by the day.

You can find new railways being built in Africa and Asia, Europe and the United States. Some are for fast passenger movement and more and more involve dedicated freight lines.

If this transport revolution is ever to reach critical mass here in Canada, a country that has lost more than 10,000 kilometres of track since 1990 in places as far apart as Vancouver Island and Quebec, it will need to start in the heavily populated province of Ontario.

The Northern & Eastern Ontario Rail Network (NEORN) is a lobby group dedicated to that goal. It launched a major push Monday to reawaken Canadians to the benefit of rail transport.

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Environmental review wraps up for New Prosperity mine (Canadian Press/CBC News Business (August 23, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/

Open pit gold and and copper mine to be located 125 kilometres southwest of Williams Lake

It’s the tenth largest undeveloped gold-copper deposit in the world — at least nine-million wedding rings’ worth — and for half a century since its discovery, the deposit has remained buried among the pristine lakes and mountains of British Columbia’s wild Chilcotin region.

Opponents of a billion-dollar plan to develop the site want it to stay that way. The company behind the proposal that has already been rejected once says it has a new plan that will save a lake of cultural significance to First Nations — contrary to the original plan — and put millions of dollars into provincial coffers.

Public hearings on the New Prosperity mine proposal wrap up today following five weeks of hearings in nearby communities, and the proponent and opponents remain deeply divided.

“What it is we propose to do is not unusual. It’s an engineering exercise, not a science experiment,” John McManus, senior vice-president of operations for Taseko told the panel on the opening day of the latest set of hearings.

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In aftermath of cartel break-up, potash prices slide – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – August 23, 2013)

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.

VANCOUVER – Spot prices for Canada’s potash exports may have eased, an indication of a softer market following the breakup of a Russian-Belarusian industry oligopoly last month.

Prices for spot shipments of the crop nutrient from Port Metro Vancouver recently slipped $20 (U.S.) to less than $400 a tonne, while there are preliminary signs of market softness elsewhere, including slightly discounted potash prices on rail shipments to China, Patricia Mohr, vice-president and commodity market specialist at Bank of Nova Scotia, said in an interview Thursday.

Russia’s OAO Uralkali announced on July 30 it was abandoning Belarusian Potash Co., a joint venture with rival Belaruskali of Belarus and one of the two largest marketing groups for potash, a mineral used on farms to boost crop yields. Analysts have warned that increased competition following the breakup would lower potash prices by late 2013.

“We can’t be too precise about forecasts because there are a variety of different kinds of prices to different buyers, and some of them are spot and some of them are contract,” Ms. Mohr said. However, she added that the stage has been set for lower potash prices over the next six months, perhaps trading around $350 a tonne in early 2014.

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Mining slowdown begins to hurt as Bay Street sheds jobs, firms – by Boyd Erman and Jacqueline Nelson (Globe and Mail – August 23, 2013)

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.

A sustained downturn in Canadian capital markets claims its first big foreign victim Friday, as Stifel Financial Corp. shuts down its Toronto and Calgary operations and lets go of 60 people.

Businesses such as stock underwriting and trading have plunged, eating away at profits for investment dealers in Canada – particularly smaller ones – and forcing some firms to close or merge.

The problem is that deep weakness in the commodity and resource sectors and volatile markets have sharply curtailed deal volumes and new public offerings for investment dealers. The S&P/TSX materials index has fallen 22 per cent in the past year and the energy index was flat, even as U.S. markets have soared to record highs. That poor showing has curtailed investors’ interest in junior mining and oil and gas stocks, meaning that fewer resource companies are able to raise money.

Eleven investment dealers merged, closed their doors, or announced plans to do so in the first half of 2013, the Investment Industry Association of Canada said. Ten firms closed in 2012.

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Barrick Gold Corp. to sell three mines in Australia for $300 million (Canadian Press/Toronto Star – August 23, 2013)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Barrick Gold Corp. has agreed to sell off three high-cost mines in Western Australia to South Africa-based miner Gold Fields Ltd. — a move analysts say will free Barrick up to focus on more profitable operations.

Barrick said it will receive about $300 million from the sale, which is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board.

The company said the three mines that comprise the Yilgarn South assets produced a total of 452,000 ounces of gold in 2012 and a further 196,000 ounces in the first half of this year.

Kerry Smith, an analyst at Haywood Securities, said selling the higher-cost mines will reduce Barrick’s operating expenses and have only a minimal impact on the company’s production volumes. “By eliminating those three mines out of their portfolio, it frees their management up to spend more time on other assets that actually make more cash,” Smith said.

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Arctic tour: Stephen Harper acknowledges social issues in Canada’s North – by Tonda MacCharles (Toronto Star – August 23, 2013)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper shifted his political message in the North Thursday after he met Nunavut Premier Eve Aariak and faced media questions about the immense social challenges here.

RANKIN INLET, NUNAVUT—On a day he intended to highlight more money for mining development, Prime Minister Stephen Harper shifted his political message in the North after he met Nunavut Premier Eve Aariak and faced media questions about the immense social challenges here.

Those had largely gone unmentioned by the prime minister during his eighth annual Arctic tour. Instead it has focused on resource development and Arctic sovereignty. Thursday was also supposed to boost the prime minister’s credentials as a supporter of basic science.

In Rankin Inlet, on the northwest coast of Hudson’s Bay, Harper, who is frequently criticized for failing to back scientific research and accused of muzzling scientists, threw his weight behind a major geological research project and brought geologists along to tell everyone about it.

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Beyond bitumen: Can Fort McMurray build a future that’s bigger than the oil sands? – by Mashoka Maimona (National Post – August 23, 2013)

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

The matron of northern Alberta’s oil sands country — Fort McMurray — envisions a future beyond energy for a community built on bitumen.

Melissa Blake, the mayor of Wood Buffalo, the regional municipality made up of Fort McMurray and nine rural communities, is well aware her town — sitting on the largest deposit outside OPEC — has become synonymous with the oil sands.

“I can acknowledge that just about any other job that’s supported in Fort McMurray is one that is here to support those who work for the [oil] industry. But I also see the opportunity of being able to offer more cultural amenities, more social amenities, more retail and commercial opportunities — really allowing people who have creative energy to be successors in their own right,” Ms. Blake said in a phone interview from Fort McMurray. “If we turn our backs on those opportunities, we won’t be able to welcome a different era in the future.”

Fort McMurray is bursting at the seams: its population has doubled in the past 15 years to nearly 80,000, and the number is expected to surpass 200,000 by 2030.

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A pipeline that’s good for Canada is good for Ontario, too – by Jesse Kline (National Post – August 23, 2013)

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

British Columbia’s Liberal Premier, Christy Clark, has not been shy about her province’s desire to get its “fair share” out of the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, which would transport oil sands crude to the West Coast. Not only does Ms. Clark want to receive royalties from oil originating in Alberta, she also wants the federal government to pick up the cost, should anything go wrong.

Unfortunately, this strain of thought seems to have spread beyond B.C.’s borders, passing from one Liberal mind to another.

Last year, the former Liberal premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, weighed into the debate by arguing that the high Canadian dollar that results from energy exports is bad for Ontario’s manufacturing sector. “If I had my preferences as to whether we had a rapidly growing oil and gas sector in the West or a lower dollar, I’ll tell you where I stand: with the lower dollar,” he said.

Mr. McGuinty eventually changed his mind, perhaps having realized that since Ontario manufactures much of the machinery used to develop Alberta’s oil resources, holding up the construction of new pipelines would be counterproductive. But now that he is out of office and his successors are facing the very real prospect of Alberta oil flowing through their backyard, the Ontario Liberals appear to be adopting strategies developed by their West Coast cousins.

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Michael Den Tandt: Days into Harper’s trip, the real problems of the North begin to emerge – by Michael Den Tandt (National Post – August 23, 2013)

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

RANKIN INLET, Nunavut — After days of singing the praises of Arctic sovereignty, resource extraction and development, Prime Minister Stephen Harper came face to face here with the stark challenge of catalyzing a 21st Century gold rush in a society afflicted by grinding poverty and social dysfunction. It is a daunting task, with no assured outcomes. What is clear, now, is that the Conservatives intend to try.

Thursday morning the PM appeared before a small crowd to deliver the day’s pre-packaged news — a $100-milion investment in geo-mapping, intended to lay bare the underground riches of the North. The goal is to send geologists fanning out across the Arctic Archipelago, first by air and then on the ground, to create a map that will guide mining firms in their own future explorations.

While he spoke, children played outside on a dirt field, as beat-up pickup trucks and four-wheelers raced along gravel roads, among the modular buildings that make up this hamlet of 2,358. Rankin Inlet, high on the northwest shore of Hudson’s Bay, is one of three regional centres in Nunavut, alongside Cambridge Bay and the capital of Iqaluit.

Though clearly better off than communities further north, Rankin has a developing-world feel — right down to the choking dust and chaotic traffic. Respiratory ailments, one resident told me, are rife, particularly among the elderly.

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BHP’s sales plan latest blow to Canpotex pricing power – by Brent Jang (Globe and Mail – August 22, 2013)

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.

VANCOUVER — BHP Billiton Ltd. is honing its strategy to sell Saskatchewan potash on its own to Asian customers, sidestepping Canada’s export marketing agency for the farming commodity.

The Australian mining giant, which this week announced a $2.6-billion (U.S.) investment in its Jansen mine southeast of Saskatoon, is crafting detailed plans to transport potash by rail. The company will use Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. across Western Canada, then connect to Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp.’s train system through Washington State, say BHP officials.

BHP is still working out the logistics of shipping potash from the Port of Vancouver in Washington, where a sprawling U.S. property has been set aside for a new export terminal that would be built in time for the company to launch sales in 2020.

The company’s plans highlight the new pressure being placed on Canpotex Ltd., Canada’s export agency for potash, one of two groups that together control roughly 70 per cent of global supplies of the fertilizer ingredient, used to boost crop yields on farms. Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., Mosaic Co. and Agrium Inc. are the agency’s members.

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For potash juniors, the pressure’s on – by Brenda Bouw (Globe and Mail – August 22, 2013)

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.

Junior potash companies, already suffering from tight financing conditions, will start to feel more pain following an industry shakeup that has increased competition among suppliers of the crop nutrient.

The dismantling of the world’s largest potash oligopoly last month has already hit stock prices for potash companies, and is expected to lead to a drop in potash prices, which would lower margins for producers and make new projects less viable.

BHP Billiton Ltd.’s decision this week to push ahead with its Jansen project in Saskatchewan, expected to be the world’s largest potash mine, also threatens to create a glut of the mineral. BHP’s announcement follows a move by Russia’s OAO Uralkali to drop out of Belarusian Potash Co. (BPC), a joint venture with rival Belaruskali of Belarus.

Only those potash projects with low-cost projects as well as money and time to spare are expected to survive the next few quarters, analysts say.

“Even before Uralkali’s announcement last month and BHP’s Jansen update this week, the junior potash projects were already in trouble.

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When BC Cancer Foundation seeks sponsorship, Big Oil need not apply – by Jonathan Kay (National Post – August 22, 2013)

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

Are oil companies the new tobacco companies — grudgingly tolerated for the sake of the associated tax revenue, but too disreputable to have their brands associated with charitable events and sports competitions? This month’s developments in B.C. suggest anti-oil demagoguery may be driving the country in that direction.

Earlier in August, The Ride to Conquer Cancer — which organizes a two-day cycling-themed fundraising event every year — posted the following notice on its website:

“The Ride to Conquer Cancer, benefiting the BC Cancer Foundation, announced an exciting new commitment from Silver Wheaton. The Vancouver-based precious metal streaming company is the Presenting Sponsor of the B.C. Ride to Conquer Cancer in 2014 through to 2016 — supporting the largest cycling fundraiser in B.C. history … ‘Silver Wheaton is proud to become the lead sponsor for the B.C. Ride to Conquer Cancer,’ said Randy Smallwood, president and CEO of Silver Wheaton. ‘With a staggering one in three British Columbians diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, this cause is quite personal for many of our employees and their families. Our company is honoured to be supporting the BC Cancer Foundation’s vision for a world free of cancer.’ ”

Good for Silver Wheaton, I say. But its honour is another company’s dishonour.

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Key Arctic naval facility delayed by budget cuts despite being announced with much fanfare by PM in 2007 – by Lee Berthiaume (National Post – August 22, 2013)

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

National Defence is hoping it can finally start moving on an already diminished and delayed plan for establishing a key naval facility in Canada’s Arctic after submitting a new environmental impact assessment to the Nunavut government this week.

The creation of a deep-water port and naval resupply facility at an old lead-zinc mine in Nanisivik, Nunavut, was announced to much fanfare by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2007 as part of his government’s promise to protect Canadian sovereignty in the North.

“With its sheltered harbour, nearby jet-capable airstrip, and proximity to the Northwest Passage, Nanisivik offers an ideal location for the docking and refuelling facility,” the prime minister said at the time.

Estimates at the time put the total cost of getting Nanisivik up and running at about $100 million, with construction expected to start in 2010 and the deep-water port fully operational by 2015.

But budget cuts, regulatory snags and an apparent bout of shortsightedness have significantly reduced the project’s scope while causing delays and uncertainty about when construction can actually start.

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Aboriginal women offer solution to northern Canada’s skilled worker shortages – by Daniel Bland (Vancouver Sun – August 21, 2013)

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

Daniel Bland is lead instructor for the Eeyou Mining Skills Enhancement Program, an initiative of Cree Human Resources Development, in Mistissini, Quebec.

While economists and labour market researchers agree one of Canada’s greatest challenges over the next decade will be how to solve skilled worker shortages, there seems to be no consensus about just how to do that.

The skills shortage will be particularly acute all across northern Canada, where natural resource development and mining projects are projected to grow the northern economy over 90 per cent from 2011 to 2020. Led by northern B.C.’s mining output, which will increase by a whopping 300 per cent, that is more than four times the growth rate forecast for the Canadian economy over that same period.

And while that is good news on many fronts, the fact that many of the largest mining projects are close to remote First Nation communities without particularly well skilled or educated populations, is cause for growing concern. Our work in essential skills assessment and training for mining jobs with the James Bay Cree First Nation in northwestern Quebec has taught us some valuable lessons about what employers can do to maximize human resources in remote aboriginal communities.

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