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Stephen Harper made the right decision on Nexen takeover – by Carol Goar (Toronto Star – December 14, 2012)

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.

It is easy to forget what a fine mind Stephen Harper has because he so frequently harnesses it to divisive partisan schemes. But every so often, the prime minister turns his intelligence to a difficult public issue and comes up with a smart solution.

His decision on the $15.1-billion bid by China National Offshore Oil Corporation Ltd. (CNOOC) to take over Calgary-based Nexen Inc. falls into that category. He said yes to the controversial acquisition, but no to future takeovers of Canadian energy firms by state-owned foreign companies.

His answer was pragmatic, balanced and shrewd enough to make a gambler smile. He gave the Chinese government what it wanted — but not what it really sought: a precedent it could use to buy up companies in the oilpatch, guaranteeing China a growing share of Canada’s energy wealth.

He gave the energy sector what it wanted — but not what it was really hoping for: an unrestricted infusion of Chinese-controlled capital into the oilsands. He gave Canadians what they wanted — a way to control who benefits from the oilsands — but not as quickly as most would have liked.

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PetroChina, Encana strike natural gas pact – by Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – December 14, 2012)

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 — Encana Corp. reached a $2.2-billion joint venture with PetroChina to develop the hot new Duvernay property in Alberta, in a deal that will fly just below the radar of Investment Canada’s new guidelines on state-owned enterprises.

The pact comes less than a week after the federal government unveiled investment rules that raise new hurdles for foreign state-owned companies to take over Canadian oil and gas producers and encourage exactly the type of deal that Encana and PetroChina concluded Thursday.

The deal shows foreign players remain anxious to invest in the Canadian energy industry even with the new guidelines. Chinese officials have said the government’s rules could put a chill on their investment plans in Canada, but PetroChina was clearly eager to proceed with Encana. Sources say the deal was essentially done weeks ago, but the firms held back their announcement until after Ottawa released its CNOOC decision and the new rules of engagement for state-owned enterprises.

Encana CEO Randy Eresman said the partners received assurances from Ottawa that the transaction would not be reviewed under the Investment Canada Act prior to closing the deal on Thursday because there is no transfer of control.

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Embattled oil producers quietly eye rail option – by Nathan Vanderklippe (Globe and Mail – December 14, 2012)

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.

CALGARY — On a clear day, the waters that roll into Prince Rupert’s industrial port offer a clear view to open seas that stretch to the other side of the world. Only steps from those waters lie train tracks that connect this distant northern port with the heart of North America, including the oil sands.

Those tracks offer exporters a more direct connection to Asia than any other place in North America outside Alaska. It’s an advantage of proximity that has already brought coal, grain and containers to these shores. Now, some believe Canada’s energy industry should do the same, arguing that rail may have a clearer route to Pacific oil exports than Northern Gateway, the $6-billion Enbridge Inc. project that has been embroiled in controversy.

After all, trains elsewhere in North America are now moving hundreds of thousands of barrels a day, including to refineries on the West Coast. There is little reason crude from those same trains could not be loaded onto ships. Canadian rail lines have examined the idea; in the U.S., at least two Pacific terminals are developing plans to export oil brought west by rail.

“Pipelines can’t touch the capacity of the railway,” said Alf Nunweiler, a former B.C. northern affairs minister who spent 42 years working for CN. The CN rail line into Prince Rupert is 75 per cent empty, according to the local port authority. And it’s already built, unlike a pipeline that would have to travel through northern British Columbia’s challenging terrain.

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A resourceful man [Bill Gallagher] – by Claudia Cattaneo (National Post/Edmonton Post – December 14, 2012)

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

Bill Gallagher says locking up First Nations support goes a long way to tempering environmental movement opposition

Canada is orchestrating a big push to accelerate development of its natural resources, but behind the hype there is a shifting and tense legal landscape. First Nations are on a big winning streak in the courts that has empowered them to have a say on projects in big parts of the country.

The tension is pushing corporations to spend huge dollars to keep the peace and move projects along in areas First Nations claim as their traditional lands.

But the approach is piecemeal and there have been few consistently successful strategies. Tension, frustration and confrontation abound. Lawyers, consultants and vested interests fuel and feed off the tension, making it hard to come up with solutions.

Many projects worth billions of dollars have been delayed or sunk altogether. They include scores of mining, forestry and pipeline projects such as the now-shelved Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline in the Northwest Territories. The Northern Gateway pipeline could be next unless accommodation is found with opposed First Nations in the B.C. interior and on the coast.

Bill Gallagher, a former federal government regulator, oil and gas lawyer, treaty negotiator, and author of a new book, Resource Rulers, Fortune And Folly on Canada’s Road to Resources, argues there is a better way.

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Promoting regional autonomy as a campaign issue raises expectations – by Lloyd H. Mack (Kenora Daily Miner & News – December 13, 2012)

http://www.kenoradailyminerandnews.com/

During my tenure in Kenora I have often thought there was a closer affinity between this region of the country and Manitoba than Southern Ontario. So it only makes sense a former ‘Toban, Glen Murray, would call for the creation of a regional government for Northern Ontario.

Murray, who served as mayor of Winnipeg from 1998 to 2004, now lives in Toronto and is MPP for Toronto Centre. He’s presently on the campaign trail as a candidate in the 2013 Ontario Liberal Party leadership race. At an all-candidates debate in Thunder Bay on Sunday, Murray displayed an understanding of northern and rural issues by voicing the idea of a regional government that would administrate transportation, energy and regionally relevant legislation such as the Northern Growth Act and the Far North Act.

Four of Murray’s rivals embraced the idea of giving northerners a louder voice in decisions that directly affect them, but make no mistake none of the leadership candidates are using the ‘S’ word. In fact, Kathleen Wynne cautioned this kind of policy idea can’t be viewed as the Liberal Party supporting the idea of Northern Ontario separating from the rest of the province.

But Murray drew a parallel between how a regional government could address the unique needs of the North and the way the 2007 City of Toronto Act allowed the province’s population centre to levy taxes for administrating some of its provincial affairs.

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NOMA calls on Ontario political leaders to outline relationship they envision with the North – by Jon Thompson (Kenora Daily Miner & News – December 12, 2012)

http://www.kenoradailyminerandnews.com/

Murray has released a platform that would grant Northern Ontario its own government within the province. Elected alongside municipal councils, it would have taxation powers, administrate legislation with Northern relevance and have a degree of autonomy over energy and transportation portfolios.

NOMA is calling on other Liberal candidates as well as Ontario’s PCs and NDP to let their views be known on what kind of relationship they envision between Queen’s Park and Northwestern Ontario.

“We’re looking not just at the Liberal Party because of their leadership race. That’s what spurred it but we’re looking for all parties to buy in to this concept of the decision-making process in the Northwest, by the Northwest for the Northwest,” Canfield said, speaking on NOMA’s behalf. “An MPP out of Toronto, who is a little bit more familiar with our region than most of them are, has brought this up in the leadership race, it was a perfect opportunity. We’ve been saying this for years.”

Canfield insisted the Northwest needs an independent deal from the Northeast, as Calgary is closer to Kenora than is Sudbury, yet he sees three legislative buildings and three planning acts when he looks the same distance to the west.

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Snookered by CNOOC – by John Cummings (Northern Miner – December 17-23, 2012)

The Northern Miner, first published in 1915, during the Cobalt Silver Rush, is considered Canada’s leading authority on the mining industry. Editor John Cumming MSc (Geol) is one of the country’s most well respected mining journalists. jcumming@northernminer.com

Canada’s federal government surprised quite a few Canadians in early December by approving the sale of two large Western Canadian oil and gas players to two Asian governments — a decision that will have wide ramifications for future sales of any Canadian mining assets.

Apart from giving the nod to Petronas’ $6-billion offer for natural gas producer Progress Energy Resources, the government more controversially gave its blessing to the $15.1-billion takeover of Calgary-based Nexen — one of Canada’s largest independent oil companies — by Chinese state-owned oil giant China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC).

The Chinese government, which has replaced Saudi Arabia’s leadership over the past decade as the West’s number-one frenemy, is thus getting its hands on Nexen’s 6-billion-barrel Long Lake oilsands project in northern Alberta, plus its 7.2% stake in the Syncrude Canada mega joint-venture. It’s the largest foreign takeover by the Chinese since Tibet.

In greenlighting the CNOOC bid, the Canadian government, on behalf of all Canadians, is also giving its approval to the Chinese government’s appalling human rights record, as well as to China’s refusal to engage in true reciprocity in its trading relations with the West. (Is there anyone who really thinks the Chinese government would approve a similar-sized takeover of an oil asset on its own territory by a Canadian private or crown corporation?)

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Ontario’s Ring of Fire could open economic door to locals – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – December 14, 2012)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

In the far-north muskeg of Ontario lies a chromite deposit that could potentially rival that of world No 1 producer South Africa, heralding the development of North America’s first significant chromite mine, a new era of prosperity for the region’s First Nations and millions in tax revenue for Canada’s capital province for many decades to come.

Discovered almost by accident in 2002 by diamond major DeBeers, which at the time was looking for diamonds, but instead found copper and zinc, the 5 000 km2 Ring of Fire deposit, which is about 1 000 km north-west of Toronto, is one of the most promising mineral development opportunities in Ontario in almost a century.

Tucked deep into northern Ontario, the Ring of Fire contains rich mineral deposits that could transform the region much as the oil sands have transformed Alberta. Named whimsically for a Johnny Cash song, the crescent-shaped arc of deposits has the potential to make Canada the world’s fourth largest chromite producer.

Only four countries account for about 80% of the world’s chromite production, with South Africa leading Kazakhstan, Turkey and India.

China’s resource-hungry economy buys half the world’s supply and the US buys about 15%. Chromite, when processed into an alloy, is used in the production of stainless steel, among other products and is valued for its ability to increase steel’s hardness, toughness and resistance to corrosion. In thin chrome-plated coatings, it protects auto parts, appliances and an array of other products, including weapons.

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TOO HOT TO HANDLE? NORTHERN ONTARIO’S RING OF FIRE – by Nathan Elliott (Ontario Mineral Exploration Review – December 2012)

This article is from the Insightwest website. Insightwest offers strategic, compliance and technical-based solutions for the energy and resource sectors. http://www.insightwest.ca/

And it burns, burns, burns, the ring of fire

The ring of fire

On January 11, 1964, Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash became the number one record on Billboard’s new Country Album Chart. The collection featured some of Cash’s best material and its title track would become the biggest hit of the “Man in Black’s” career. The album, however, was more than a one hit wonder. Several of its songs would also climb the charts and connect with listeners worldwide. For example, Cash re-wrote what became the iconic television score for Bonanza, but its central messages remained the same – the pursuit of fortune, and the thrills of striking it rich. In the anti-war classic The Big Battle, Cash’s social conscience is front and centre, as is the old adage that a fight is not over until it’s over. (There’ll Be) Peace in the Valley (For Me) concludes the album. Its message is one of hope and possibility, rising from the ashes of conflict.

With the 50th anniversary of the Ring of Fire album release around the corner and the 10 year commemoration of Cash’s passing next year, it is timely that the northern Ontario geological discovery that bears the album’s name is front page news today. It is also fitting that the universal themes of hope, desire, war and peace that define the album can be used as frameworks for understanding the Ring of Fire mining developments, as well as the motivations of First Nations, industry, government and environmental groups with vested interests in the region today.

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Why Ontario has a strong economic case for seceding from Canada – by John Ibbitson (Globe and Mail – December 13, 2012)

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.

“But prosperity will prove elusive, unless $12-billion that flows out of Ontario 
annually is used at home – to retrain unemployed workers, to expand public transit
in Greater Toronto and to supply the needed roads, energy and Internet without
which Northern Ontario’s Ring of Fire, touted as the most promising Canadian mining
development in a century, will never reach its full potential.” (John Ibbitson)

If it were simply a question of dollars and cents, Ontario should separate from Canada, now. This is emphatically not the conclusion of a new report by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce on the punishment that Ottawa inflicts on Canada’s economic heartland. But so damning is the evidence contained in that report that the sentiment is hard to suppress.

A copy of “A Federal Agenda for Ontario”, released Thursday, was provided in advance to The Globe and Mail. It details the manifold ways in which federal policies punish Ontario workers and the Ontario economy.

‘Twas ever thus, but at least in the past Ontario was wealthy enough to bear the burden. No more. “Ontario needs to think of how it can reinvent itself and reinvent its economy,” Allan O’Dette, president of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview.

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B.C. mine to hire only Chinese temporary workers for years – CBC News (December 12, 2012)

http://www.cbc.ca/bc/

HD Mining plans to start hiring Canadians after 4 years

The B.C. Federation of Labour says documents show it will be 14 years before Canadians replace all the temporary foreign workers from China hired to work at an underground coal mine in northern B.C.

Two unions are in court challenging more than 200 temporary foreign worker permits obtained by HD Mining for its Murray River underground coal mine near Tumbler Ridge, B.C. The employer says there were no qualified Canadians to do the specialized work at the underground mine.

Documents tendered in the case include HD Mining’s previously unreleased transition plan, which outlines how the company won’t start hiring Canadian miners for more than four years and plans to continue using temporary foreign workers for the next 14 years.

“What the document says categorically is it will be 4½ years before a single Canadian will be working underground at the mine,” said B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair.

“After 4½ years, it will be 10 years before it will be a majority of Canadians working underground, and it will be 15 years before the temporary foreign workers are finished working in that mine.”

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Conflict-Free Gold Standard – World Gold Council

http://www.gold.org/about_gold/sustainability/conflict_free_standard/

The World Gold Council has developed the Conflict-Free Gold Standard, an industry-led approach to combat the potential misuse of mined gold to fund armed conflict. The Standard has been developed with our member companies, comprising the world’s leading gold producers, and with extensive input from governments, civil society and supply chain participants. It is hoped that the Standard will promote responsible mining practices throughout the gold mining industry. It is an open standard that is available for use by any party involved in the extraction of gold.

Responsibly undertaken, gold mining can play an important role in contributing to sustainable development and alleviating poverty in many of the world’s developing countries. The direct and indirect economic contribution of professional gold mining creates new possibilities for these nations, their communities and individuals.

However, when there is armed conflict, even the best managed operation will need to take additional steps to ensure that both the gold it produces and its broader activities do not contribute to the conflict.

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Review: Le Nord au coeur – by Brendan Kelly (Montreal Gazette – December 6, 2012)

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

Louis-Edmond Hamelin shines a northern light

MONTREAL – Louis-Edmond Hamelin is quite the character, and when you have such a great character as your leading man, you usually have a pretty captivating film. Le Nord au coeur is no exception to that rule.

Seasoned documentary filmmaker Serge Giguère has made a brilliant feature about Hamelin, a key intellectual figure in the discussion of northern affairs in Quebec over the past few decades. But this is no dry academic piece; rather, it’s a lively, thought-provoking look at a fascinating man that also serves as a history of Quebec’s forgotten people.

From the development of the iron ore industry in the north in the ’50s to the James Bay mega-project in the late ’60s/early ’70s to the controversial Plan Nord unveiled by the Charest government, those in southern Canada have spent decades plotting the commercialization of the north without worrying about the people who actually live there.

Right at the start of Le Nord au coeur, Hamelin, 89, is seen getting into an Air Inuit plane and then a small seaplane to make his way to the aboriginal community of Mushuau-nipi, a place Hamelin hadn’t been to for 37 years. There he meets with locals, which is when the film moves backwards to look at his life’s work studying the north and its communities.

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Bill Gallagher, Author, Lawyer, Consultant and Strategist – Nation Talk Interview (December 11, 2012)

http://nationtalk.ca/ NationTalk speaks to Author, Lawyer, Consultant and Strategist Bill Gallagher. An experienced strategist in the dynamic area of native, government, and corporate relations, he is held in high regard as an authority on the rise of native empowerment in Canada’s resources sector. He is now also the Author of Resource Rulers: Fortune and Folly …

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No Canadian hires for four years at Chinese-owned B.C. mine – by Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – December 13, 2012)

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.

MINING REPORTER — HD Mining International, building a large coal mine in northern British Columbia using Chinese workers, will take four years before it hires even a single Canadian miner, and another decade beyond that before the work force is fully local, court documents show.

According to documents made public on Wednesday by the B.C. Federation of Labour, HD Mining plans to use up to 201 workers from China to staff the mine through 30 months of construction and two years of ramp-up and mining.

It plans to phase in a Canadian work force at the so-called Murray River coal mine, near Tumbler Ridge, B.C., in the subsequent 10 years, at a rate of 10 per cent per year, documents showed. Murray River is expected to have a mine life of 40 years.

The revelations could deepen the controversy around the company – majority-owned by Chinese coal miner Huiyong Holding – and the use of temporary foreign workers in an industry suffering from skills shortages after demand for metals skyrocketed over the past decade.

Local unions were in court on Wednesday seeking an injunction that would prevent any more workers coming to the project pending a judicial review of the process that cleared the hirings.

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