Canadian Regional Media and Web Publications – Page 179

Canada Day Column: Canada defies all logic – by John Grubber (Sudbury Star – June 30, 2015)

June 30, 2015

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

John Grubber is a Sudbury history teacher, author and illustrator.

As Canada Day approaches, and our 150th birthday as a country in 2017, it is important that we think not just of celebrations, national values, ideals and mythic nation-building, but of the very real economic and political reasons we came together in the 1860s.

It’s not quite Game of Thrones, but there is plenty of intrigue in the ‘boring’ topic of Confederation.

We commonly know the names of many of the players, led by Sir John A. Macdonald, that argued, debated, fought and compromised to bring us together as a nation, but we rarely consider the conditions that made such a bond necessary or urgent.

Looking at a map, we are an illogical country huge, spanning a continent, a huge range of terrain and when the first group of far-flung colonies united in 1867, largely filled with unexplored lands. We shouldn’t have been able to stay together, given the vast differences, but it was the determination of those who met in Charlottetown and Quebec in the 1860s that we would work out our differences and thrive.

Miners create community with food – by Maureen Arges Nadin (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – June 29, 2015)

June 29, 2015

Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

‘Food is one of the only comforts that people have when they are away from home,” says Allan Bedard, manager of Windigo Ventures and Catering.

And he is someone who knows, as his company supplies, plans and prepares nutritious and tasty food to feed and comfort FIFO (fly in fly out) workers at mining camps like Goldcorp’s camp at Musselwhite.

FIFO lifestyle is an occupational reality for many workers in the mining industry who are flown in on a rotational basis from various parts of Northwestern Ontario and other parts of Canada.

And attracting and retaining workers who are facing being away from their families for two weeks at a time can be a challenge. Many FIFO workers will say that when they are away, their co-workers and the people who provide support services at the mine, become their second family. And families generally eat together. This is a dynamic that Bedard understands well.

“It fosters a sense of community when we live with people and share food,” he says.

Uncertainties in Canada’s resource sector – by Janet Guttsman (Canadian Lawyer Magazine – June 29, 2015)

June 29, 2015

http://www.canadianlawyermag.com/

Existing and future land claims and doubts on environmental rules have added a layer of uncertainty to an already difficult environment in the Canadian mining and resource sector, as companies struggle for development cash in a nervous and unsettled market.

With oil prices sagging, and global capital markets looking askance at mining and resources, lawyers say both the Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia aboriginal land rights case, and the new recommendations and likely regulations after the Mount Polley tailings dam disaster are adding to the gloom.

“These developments, Tsilhqot’in and Mount Polley, have added to the considerations that investors consider when they are looking at investing in Canada,” says Paul Cassidy, a partner in the business law group at McCarthy Tétrault LLP in Vancouver. “Are they using these two factors as the tipping point to make or not make an investment decision? I think that’s too hard to say. The investors we deal with are much too sophisticated to rely on one mine incident or one court decision as a tipping point.”

The 2014 Tsilhqot’in Nation v. British Columbia case was the Supreme Court’s first declaration of aboriginal title, a ruling that the band holds title to land in the interior of British Columbia that it has used over generations.

Aboriginal employment a focus for Hudbay – by Jonathon Naylor (Flin Flon Reminder – June 25, 2015)

June 26, 2015

http://www.thereminder.ca/

In 2013, at the height of the Idle No More protest movement, Hudbay found itself mired in controversy.

Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, a small native band based in Pukatawagan, declared the company in breach of treaty law by opening its Lalor and Reed mines near Snow Lake without First Nations consent.

The powers that be (and much of the public) sided with Hudbay and mining carried on as planned. The episode may have soured some First Nations people on Hudbay, but it hasn’t dampened the company’s enthusiasm for bringing more Aboriginals – perhaps a lot more – into the workforce.

“We find that building familiarity and understanding is what we need to accomplish,” says Rob Winton, vice-president, Manitoba Business Unit for Hudbay. “If you don’t work in a sector, you might know what it does in the broadest sense but not have much familiarity with all the aspects and details of it. I don’t think that’s unusual or unique to First Nations. But because we want to provide opportunity for Aboriginal people to be part of Hudbay, we’re trying to bridge that gap. We want them to see and believe that Hudbay is an option.”

A visit to the world’s largest operating salt mine – by John M. Smith (Inside Belleville – June 26, 2015)

June 26, 2015

http://www.insidebelleville.com/bellevilleregion/

My wife and I recently spent a couple of days in the picturesque town of Goderich, which is located in western Ontario, north of Grand Bend and south of Kincardine on the shore of Lake Huron. We were drawn to this destination by its having the world’s largest operating salt mine. We soon found that it was, indeed, quite a sight to simply view the humungous surface storage silos and the blue elevator shafts that decorate much of Goderich’s harbour area.

However, we didn’t find any mounds of salt, for the operation actually occurs far underground, at a depth of about 1800 feet, and the Sifto Canada mine, which is now a part of the American-owned Compass Minerals Company, apparently extends for more than two miles into Lake Huron and averages a width of more than a mile. To put this into perspective, the salt mine is about as deep as the CN Tower is high, and massive trucks carry the blasted rock salt through a series of large underground tunnels into crushing and screening operations before it’s then hoisted to the surface via customized skiffs.

I hoped to get an up close and personal guided underground tour of the operation, but that was not to be. In fact, there are no tours available to the public, for the work continues non-stop, 24 hours every day, except when the lake freezes and shipments by the massive freighters become impossible. There’s, of course, a real concern with work stoppages and with liability, so the Compass Mineral Company doesn’t seem very anxious to get into the touring business.

Nickel price expected to rise: Economist – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – June 26, 2015)

November 5, 2015June 26, 2015

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The low nickel prices that prompted First Nickel Inc. to halt underground ramp development and consider shuttering its Lockerby Mine are expected to increase, but not dramatically, by the end of the year, says an economist.

Nickel was selling for US $5.80 on the London Metal Exchange earlier this week, and Patricia Mohr is forecasting it could rise to a profitable $8.75 in 2016.

Mohr is vice-president of economics and commodity market specialist at Scotiabank. The below-$6 price of nickel isn’t a profitable level, although it might cover cash costs or production at Canadian mines because we have “fairly low-cost nickel mines in Canada,” said Mohr.

“But it’s not sufficient to cover full break-even costs including depreciation and so, it’s a low price for nickel.”

FNI president and chief executive officer Thomas Boehlert blamed the decisions his company was forced to make on nickel selling below $6 a pound.

[Ontario Mining] Schools engineer partnership – by Sandi Krasowski (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – June 25, 2015)

June 25, 2015

Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

Lakehead University and Queen’s University are mining each other’s resources to serve engineering students.

The deans of the engineering programs at the two schools signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday in a step toward making their engineering courses available to students on both campuses.

David Barnett, the dean of engineering with Lakehead University says they don’t offer a mining engineering program at Lakehead, but there is active research going on within the mining sector.

“Queens is a worldwide-known mining engineering school and (partnering) just seemed to make sense,” says Barnett. “Whether it’s chemical, civil, electrical, mechanical or software engineering, mining touches all the engineering programs that we have here.”

He says it’s very difficult to start a new mining engineering program, but since mining is such an important part of the Northern Ontario economy, it make sense to get their students that expertise.

Ontario clears framework for Noront to work with First Nations – by Jon Thompson (tbnewswatch.com – June 23, 2015)

June 25, 2015

http://www.tbnewswatch.com/

“I’d like to throw this out to industry: if you want to work with First nations,
resource them enough so that we work together. We’re not in opposition, we’re
pro-development. We want to make sure that when the mine is gone, we’re still
going to be there.” (Aroland First Nation Chief Sonny Gagnon)

Terms of reference are in place for how the first mining project in the Ring Of Fire will work with nearby communities on environmental assessment.

The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change approved the plan for the Eagle’s Nest nickel mine on Friday, nearly three years after proponent, Noront made its first submission.

Noront continued social and technical work over that time, meeting with First Nations and operating with the best information available.

“We said, ‘we’re going to assume our terms of reference are right and we’re going to do the environmental work that supports those terms of reference,’ which we did over those three years,” said Noront CEO Alan Coutts, on Tuesday.

“If there were amendments, we’d deal with them when they came.” The final draft commits the company to supporting the collection of Aboriginal traditional knowledge and incorporating it into environmental planning.

Approval sign of progress: Noront – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – June 23, 2015)

June 23, 2015

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

The approval with amendments of the terms of reference for Noront Resources’ Eagle’s Nest Mine is a sign of real progress in developing the Ring of Fire asset, says company president and chief executive officer Alan Coutts.

Noront now has “the clarity and the endorsement” it was seeking from the Government of Ontario to move ahead with work on the project, Coutts said Monday.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Glen Murray announced Friday his ministry was giving a qualified approval to Noront’s terms of reference, the first step in the environmental assessment for the nickel, copper and platinum group element mine.

Noront submitted the terms of reference to the ministry in 2012, revised them at the ministry’s request and resubmitted them in December 2013, and has been waiting for approval to move ahead since.

The new round of amendments wasn’t completely unexpected, especially the technical ones, said Coutts, who couldn’t say how long it would take Noront to do the work on those amendments.

Mining to face worker shortage: Report – by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star – June 23, 2015)

June 23, 2015

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

Few children say they want to be miners when they grow up, which is one of the reasons the mining industry will experience a serious shortage of workers in the next decade.

Weak commodity prices have resulted in a lull in mining, but the Mining Industry Human Resources Council (MiRH) is projecting the industry will be short more than 106,000 workers in 10 years unless the situation is turned around.

MiHR published its 2015 mining labour market report recently, an in-depth forecast for the next two, five and 10 years about the existing workforce, demographics and diversity, and other challenges.

The report is meant for companies, unions, post-secondary school institutions, government and other stakeholders, said MiHR executive director Ryan Montpellier.

Among the key findings in the report are:

VIA proposes replacing Budd Cars – by Jim Moodie (Sudbury Star – June 23, 2015)

June 23, 2015

The Sudbury Star is the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper.

A new plan for the Sudbury-White River VIA train puts the remote rail service in jeopardy, an industry analyst is warning.

Greg Gormick, a policy consultant, says VIA Rail president Yves Desjardins-Siciliano recently told a group of southwestern Ontario mayors that the self-powered Budd Cars that ply the Sudbury-White River line will be repurposed on routes in their area and replaced in the North by a locomotive-hauled passenger coach and freight car.

“I was shocked,” says Gormick, who sat in on the meeting. “I can’t conceive of this, knowing the costs behind it.” He says Desjardins-Siciliano described the plan twice last week, once to a private audience in St. Mary’s and then at a public meeting Sarnia.

“He’s promoting this fantasy shuttle service that would go back and forth between London and Sarnia and London and Windsor, using the Budd Cars,” Gormick says.

VIA rail is an arm’s-length Crown corporation, but Gormick says there is a political angle to the VIA president floating the idea at this time. “We’re talking about someone who works for the Conservatives and he’s out doing some pre-campaigning for them,” said Gormick. “This plan for southwestern Ontario conveniently wouldn’t kick in until after the election.”

What was it like, Dad? – by Brent Cook (Exploration Insights/Kitco.com – June 19, 2015)

June 22, 2015

http://www.kitco.com/news/

https://www.explorationinsights.com/

It was tough kid. We were just coming out of the most perfect spring. The fruit trees were all in blossom, streams filled with fish, deer abounded, and we were all feeling pretty right with the world—we owned it and were the chosen ones.

Then we headed out across the flats, believing the prophets that the next paradise, just over the horizon, was even better. But the horizon never came, the land turned to salt flats and dust; the temperature reached 110°, day after day after day. We burned and suffered. The roving bandits knew we were doomed and had no interest in what little we had left. Each promising oasis was a mirage and one by one we lost our way, numbed and staggering in all directions. We lost nearly everyone on that journey which began so optimistically—and naively.

It was brutal and devastating kid; I hope to never go through that again. But some of us did survive to carry on, and I’m here to tell you about it.

Yeah, right, I’ve heard that, but like, what about the 1997 to 2002 mining bust?

NAN committed to Ring of Fire, says Grand Chief Yesno – by Carl Clutchey (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – June 19, 2015)

June 19, 2015

Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

That was then, this is now. Officials with Nishnawbe Ask Nation says mining and other developments in the Ontario’s far North won’t take place unless First Nations are the decision-makers at the forefront of that development.

“The days are long gone when industry or government can exploit our land and the resources it contains,” NAN Grand Chief Harvey Yesno declared in an address to the Ontario Mining Forum held in Thunder Bay on Wednesday.

As proof that NAN is determined to lead in the Ring of Fire development in the lower James Bay area, Yesno said the identification of key transportation corridors will be based on First Nation knowledge of local topography, sacred sites, cultural heritage and environment and resource development activities.

“This new approach will provide certainty for First Nations and the business community,” said Yesno. The lone main mining player in the Ring of Fire is Toronto-based Noront Resources. Noront is calling for an east-west transportation corridor that would link Pickle Lake to the main mining site, which is about 550 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay.

Ring of Fire development takes time, says Wynne – by Brent Linton (Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal – June 16, 2015)

June 16, 2015

Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal is the daily newspaper of Northwestern Ontario.

It was clear that Ontario’s premier had on her mind the slow-moving development of the Ring of Fire and the contentious sale of Hydro One during her visit to Thunder Bay on Monday.

Kathleen Wynne brought up the ownership of the massive electrical utility during a speech she gave in the city. “By broadening the ownership of Hydro One, we are able to make the infrastructure investments that communities across the North need to thrive,” she said.

“We are ensuring that the regulation that is in place now remains in place in terms of the setting of rates, in terms of the building of transmission, in terms of services across the province. That was very much a critical part of that decision to broaden the ownership of Hydro One.

“In terms of these investments in infrastructure there are consultations that are going to happen across the provinces. I believe there is one in July happening in Thunder Bay . . . because the decisions have not all been made how those investments are going to be made.”

Port of Algoma plan shows promise – by Elaine Della-Mattia (Sault Star – June 13, 2015)

June 16, 2015

http://www.saultstar.com/

The idea of turning Sault Ste. Marie into a transportation or trade hub has been around for more than 100 years.

Strategically located in the heart of the Great Lakes, in the centre of Canada and in close proximity to the Midwest, Sault Ste. Marie was created as a trading post.

And over the past century, the city has been mainly industry-focused, with its port locations at the city’s western edge, already well utilized to ship product and materials in and out of Sault Ste. Marie and area.

Developing A Port of Algoma, which would have direct access to rail, road and barge connectivity and utilize the expertise of Essar Ports management, could create vast regional economic potential.

The historical value of Sault Ste. Marie’s strategic location is not lost on Anshumali Dwivedi, chief executive officer of the Port of Algoma.

Dwivedi has only been in Sault Ste. Marie for a year but, as an expert on port development, he already sees the economic development potential.