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For [Ontario’s] Dwight Duncan, grim warning is a blessing in disguise – by Adam Radwanski (Globe and Mail – December 16, 2011)

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.

One of the world’s leading credit-rating agencies has provided the most urgent warning to date of the perilous financial condition of Canada’s largest province. But Moody’s Investors Services has also done a big favour to the man in charge of that province’s books.

Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan has been struggling to persuade both his fellow Liberals and the general public that it’s time for some blood on the floor. And now that Moody’s has changed its outlook on the province from “stable” to negative,” he should have an easier time finding a receptive audience.

While Ontario has for the time being maintained its credit rating of Aa1, the agency warned that an inability to tackle debt and deficit problems could lead to a downgrade. That could both dissuade investment in the province’s already struggling economy and add to the borrowing costs of a government currently $16-billion in the hole – conjuring images of the turmoil that has recently engulfed Europe.

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Moody’s warns Ontario its credit rating is at risk – by Karen Howlett and Tara Perkins (Globe and Mail – December 16, 2011)

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.

An influential credit rating agency has put Ontario on notice that it could knock down its rating if it fails to get its fiscal house in order, ratcheting up pressure for the province to take more aggressive action to rein in spending.

Moody’s Investors Service warned on Thursday that it might lower the rating if the province doesn’t take serious steps in the next budget to deal with its multibillion-dollar deficit.

Ontario’s struggles are crucial for the country because its economy is larger than that of many countries, including Sweden, Poland and Belgium, and accounts for about 40 per cent of the national economy, with a gross domestic product of $612-billion last year.

However, the province has a $16-billion deficit and a rate of growth that is slower than that of some other provinces, which is makes it difficult to find ways to balance the books.

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[Xstrata Copper’s Kidd Creek] Mine expansion complete – by The Daily Press (Timmins Daily Press – December 15, 2011)

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

The major expansion of Xstrata Copper’s Kidd Creek mine is complete. Kidd Operations announced Thursday the $120-million extension to the Kidd Mine in Timmins is on time and on budget.

Approved by Xstrata in 2008, the extension to the mining zone at Mine D from 9,100 feet to 9,600 feet will extend operations by at least two years to the first half of 2018.

Further extensions to the mine life have been identified through the 2020 Vision program to elicit suggestions from employees on how to maximise the value of the operation.

The program, launched in February 2011, has already resulted in significant cost savings and an additional 700,000 tonnes of ore reserves being identified with the objective of extending operations further to 2020.

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Northern Vision: Northern Development during the Diefenbaker Era [Roads to Resources] Thesis – by Philip Isard

China, India and many other developing countries are industrializing and urbanizing their economies. This has unleashed a global demand for minerals, oil and gas and other resources – a commodity super-cycle. In the past year, the Conference Board of Canada and other agencies have published various reports about the need for northern infrastructure develpment to tap into the rich resources across the north.

This is not a new concept. John G. Diefenbaker had a northern vision in the late 1950s and implemented policies including the “Roads to Resources” initiative to take advantage of then world demand for resources due to the cold war, pent-up American consumer demand and the rebuilding of war- torn economies and the industrialization of Japan, South Korea and other smaller economies. – (Stan Sudol)

This thesis was presented to the University of Waterloo ,by Philip Isard in fulfillment of the thesis requirement for his degree of Master of Arts in History, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2010. Click here for this very insightful thesis: http://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/10012/5032/1/Isard_Philip.pdf

Abstract Summary of  Philip Isard’s Thesis

At the inauguration of John G. Diefenbaker’s 1958 election campaign, the Prime Minister announced his ‘Northern Vision,’ a bold strategy to extend Canadian nationhood to the Arctic and develop its natural resources for the benefit of all Canadians. In some ways, the ‘Northern Vision’ was a political platform, an economic platform as well as an ideological platform.

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Transport Infrastructure and Ontario’s North: Floating New Ideas – by Livio Di Matteo (December 15, 2011)

Livio Di Matteo is Professor of Economics at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Visit his new Economics Blog “Northern Economist” at http://ldimatte.shawwebspace.ca/

One of the persistent themes in Northern Ontario economic history is transportation and access.  From the days of the fur trade, to the arrival of the railroad and later on the onset of modern highways and air travel, transportation has been essential to accessing natural resources and getting them out to market.  Yet, Northern Ontario’s transport network has borne the marks of being tailored to economic resource exploitation rather than linking together people.  The network has been designed to move resources and goods out of the region rather than facilitate travel and communication within the region.  This has been a factor in the regional divisions within a vast and sparsely populated region.

A new report by the Conference Board of Canada titled Northern Assets: Transportation Infrastructure in Remote Communities highlights the challenges of northern Canadian transportation in general and particularly the new changes being wrought by climate change such as permafrost degradation.  While the report focuses on a case study of Churchill, Manitoba, many of the issues also apply to remote rural resource communities in Northern Ontario particularly with respect to the dawn of resource exploitation in the Ring of Fire.

According the report, transportation infrastructure is more expensive to build and maintain in Canada’s North and climate change is disrupting existing rail and winter-road links. 

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NEWS RELEASE: Better Northern Transportation Links Will Be Expensive But Are Essential For Economic And Social Development

Go to the Conference Board of Canada website for Northern Assets: Transportation Infrastructure in Remote Communities

Ottawa, December 15, 2011 – The high cost of building and maintaining transportation infrastructure in Canada’s North means that governments and private investors must make hard choices and find ways to balance competing interests, according to a new report from the Conference Board of Canada’s Centre for the North.

“The long distances and harsh climate can make investments in transportation infrastructure difficult to justify, but better connections to and within the North are essential for both job growth and access to public services like health care and education,” says David Stewart-Patterson, Vice-President, Public Policy. “What happens in the North matters to Canada as a whole, and better road, rail, air and marine links are key to enabling Northern communities to achieve their full potential.”

The report, Northern Assets: Transportation Infrastructure in Remote Communities, offers six recommendations for policy-makers:
• Assess the full value created by infrastructure as well as its life-cycle costs;
• Recognize and address conflicting public, business, community, and individual interests;

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Rethinking the future of Ontario’s north – by Janet Sumner and Anna Baggio (Toronto Star – December 7, 2011)

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.

Janet Sumner is executive director and Anna Baggio is conservation land use planning director for CPAWS-Wildlands League, based in Ontario.

Like many other Canadians, we’ve been searching our souls in response to the housing crisis in Attawapiskat, home to the Muskego Cree First Nation. We have visited Attawapiskat several times. We’ve stayed at the Kataquapit Inn and enjoyed the community’s hospitality, including a traditional feast of caribou and lake sturgeon. Our work to conserve Ontario’s northern boreal forest has been enriched by the insights of the elders and other members of the community.

That is why the people of Attawapiskat are very much in our hearts today. While a donation to the Red Cross is always a good idea, we believe Canada needs to do far more to fix the problems bedevilling Attawapiskat and many other northern First Nations communities.

It’s time for a fundamental rethink of the relationship between major industrial players in the north, our governments and affected First Nations communities.

We first became involved with Attawapiskat when the environmental assessment of the nearby De Beers Victor Diamond Mine was underway nearly seven years ago.

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United at last [Canada, U.S.Energy Policy] – by Jonathan Kay (National Post – December 15, 2011)

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

Jonathan Kay is Managing Editor for Comment at the National Post and a fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

At a dinner event hosted at the Canadian embassy in Washington last week, former U.S. national security advisor Robert “Bud” McFarlane was asked to explain why America has no “energy policy.”

In response, he paraphrased an answer that Gary Hart once had given to that very question: “Oh, you’re wrong about that. We do have an energy policy. We limit ourselves to one fuel. We buy it from a cartel. And every five years, we go to war to maintain that privilege. That’s the policy.”

The fuel, of course, is oil. The cartel is OPEC. And the last war, in Iraq, has cost the United States close to a trillion dollars. That’s a hard number to swallow in a country where the national debt has become a source of shame and political paralysis. It isn’t just peaceniks who are fretting about “war for oil” these days. It’s also hawks like McFarlane and former CIA director James Woolsey, who appeared alongside McFarlane at Thursday night’s panel.

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Temagami Mining Controversy – Letter to Hon. Michael Gravelle Ministry of Natural Resources

December 15, 2011

Hon. Michael Gravelle Ministry of Natural Resources,
Suite 6630, 6th Floor, Whitney Block
99 Wellesley Street West,
Toronto ON M7A 1W3
Fax: 416-325-5316

Re: Wolf Lake EBR Registry Number: 010-7775

Dear Hon. Michael Gravelle,

I am writing on behalf of the Association of Youth Camps on the Temagami Lakes (AYCTL) to express our strong opposition to the proposal to remove the forest reserve status from parts of the Wolf Lake Forest Reserve. Mining in this area will negatively affect our ability to run canoe trips in the region and destruction of the old growth forests permanently eliminates a landscape vital to our economic health.

Forest reserve status is intended to make the area a park-in-waiting, with existing mining claims and leases being automatically designated as parks as soon as they lapse.

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NEWS RELEASE: Temagami Area Camps speak out for full protection of Wolf Lake

$3.5 million in annual economic activity depends on areas like Wolf Lake

Sudbury – December 15, 2011 – A group of eight Temagami camps wrote to Minister Gravelle today urging him to permanently protect Wolf Lake and its ancient forests from all industry.  The camps infuse over $3.5 million in direct spending into the economy each year, while providing leadership development, healing, and educational experiences to approximately 700 youth.  

“Mining in this area will negatively affect our ability to run canoe trips in the region and destruction of the old growth forests permanently eliminates a landscape vital to our economic health,” said Eoin Wood, President of the Association of Youth Camps on the Temagami Lakes (AYCTL). 

An MNR proposal takes this unique landscape further away from regulation as a permanently protected area – a designation that is long overdue. In doing so it leaves irreplaceable ecosystems and prime canoe routes in peril from industry and badly managed recreation.

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Rivalry easily stirred among cities of [Ontario’s] north – by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – December 15, 2011)

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

To many people in southern Ontario (read south of Parry Sound), northern Ontario is a giant mass of trees, lakes and rock.  Not so, and in politics, even less so.

Just one month ago, the mayors of Northern Ontario’s five major cities — Sudbury, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie, Timmins and Thunder Bay — vowed to speak with one voice to press their issues with the province, especially on industrial hydro rates.

But that fraternity doesn’t reflect an always-simmering rivalry among the cities, which is heating up, in part, through the actions of the provincial government.

It doesn’t take much, mind you, to get people in North Bay and Sudbury — which are about 130 kilometres apart — jawing over who gets what. Last year, North Bay officials complained bitterly that 31 mental health beds, and the accompanying jobs, moved to Sudbury.

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Ontario Mining education takes a step forward with new MBA program

This article was provided by the Ontario Mining Association (OMA), an organization that was established in 1920 to represent the mining industry of the province.

The art and science of leading mineral companies has taken a step forward with York University’s Schulich School of Business launching a Masters of Business Administration specializing in Global Mining Management.  The program aims to develop and mentor the next generation of business leaders in the mining sector.  The program will be fully available starting in September 2012.
 
“Canada continues to play a critical role in the global mining sector and Canadian mining companies are key players in responding to the unprecedented growth in demand for metals and minerals,” said Dezso Horvath, Dean of the Schulich School of Business.  “An MBA specializing in mining is long overdue in preparing future business leaders for a key industry in Canada and around the world.”
 
Richard Ross, former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Inmet Mining, is the Executive-in-Residence for the program.  Mr. Ross is a chartered accountant with a long and successful history in the mining sector.  He was with the accounting firm Price Waterhouse earlier in his career before working for gold miner Placer Dome.  He held a number of positions at Inmet from 1989 to 2009.  Mr. Ross also serves on the boards of Ontario Mining Association members Osisko Mining and Cliffs Natural Resources.

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Ottawa proposes first nations property ownership – by Bill Curry (Globe and Mail – December 15, 2011)

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— Conservative MPs are proposing a fundamental change to Canada’s reserve system, advocating legislation that would allow natives to own private property within the communal land of reserves.

The change – recommended Wednesday in a Conservative-led prebudget report by the House of Commons finance committee – would mark a dramatic shift for individuals living on reserve. It would make it easier to accumulate wealth and to use homes as collateral when seeking bank loans to start businesses.

But the notion is likely to face stiff opposition: The Assembly of First Nations has already bristled over earlier hints that the government was planning a move in this direction.

The proposal arrives as federal aboriginal policy is coming under close scrutiny. Graphic images of poverty in Attawapiskat have cast the spotlight on shameful conditions in dozens of reserves across the country.

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NEWS RELEASE: $304 million in mining royalties in 2010-2011: QUÉBEC HAS COLLECTED IN A SINGLE YEAR MORE THAN IT DID IN THE 10 PREVIOUS YEARS

A demanding mining regime that enables Québec to obtain its fair share from its natural resources

Montréal, September 15, 2011 – “The new mining royalty regime enables us to attain the objectives that we set, i.e. to obtain from mining companies fair compensation for our natural resources without discouraging investment,” Minister of Finance and Minister of Revenue Raymond Bachand said today at a technical
information session held jointly with Minister of Natural Resources and Wildlife and Minister responsible for the Plan Nord Clément Gignac.

Minister Bachand indicated that the mining royalties the government collected reached $304 million in 2010-2011, more than double the $133 million originally forecast in the 2011-2012 Budget.

The difference stems from the payment by mining companies of additional amounts during the last two months of the 2010-2011 fiscal year. Several factors account for the additional revenues: aside from changes in the royalty regime, i.e. an increase from 12% to 14% for part of the 2010-2011 fiscal year and the application of the mineby-mine principle, they are also attributable to an increase in the volume of resources mined and higher prices for the resources.

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Depressing rerun for anti-native stereotypes – by Brent Wesley (Toronto Star – December 14, 2011)

Brent Wesley is news director for Wawatay News in Sioux Lookout, which includes Attawapiskat First Nation in its coverage area.

Lazy. Incompetent. Dead weight. Basically, a burden on the taxpayers. Harsh descriptives for anyone to swallow, yet it’s par for the course for First Nations in this country. Especially when a major issue hits mainstream news like the state of emergency in Attawapiskat First Nation over inadequate housing.

The James Bay community in Northern Ontario made the declaration in late October, yet people in the community have lived in makeshift houses since 2009. Some residents are facing the onslaught of a third winter without proper homes. And in Ontario’s Far North, winter is harsh and unforgiving, It’s a situation that can tug at the heart strings of most people. But when Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan exercised his ministerial right to put the community under third-party management, suddenly the spotlight was on band finances. Where has the money gone?

Others have done a good job of breaking down the numbers, so I won’t dwell on it. Rather, as a First Nation person, the public backlash has weighed heavy. Instead of compassion, First Nations were suddenly generalized and told we don’t know how to fend for ourselves.

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