The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous impact and influence on Canada’s political and business elite as well as the rest of the country’s print, radio and television media.
This quote was from the June 14, 2010 edition of the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business section.
Gordon Pitts – Globe and Mail Report on Business Reporter – During the rationalization of 2006-2007, did the Canadian mining industry get hollowed out?
Teck Resources Ltd. CEO Don Lindsay – “Yes, hollowing out did occur. Noranda, Falconbridge, Inco, and Alcan all went quickly. They were leading companies that employed a lot of people – and they required services, from finance to legal, accounting and engineering. There is no question that has diminished substantially, and it is a loss for Canada. We said so at the time and people didn’t accept those views and now, people realize how much Canada lost.
Having said that, the mining industry in Canada is as entrepreneurial as you will find. New companies get built up to take the place of the Norandas and Falconbridges. But there will be a gap for quite a few years.
I can assure you this would never happen in Australia; it would never happen in Chile. People build national champions in other countries. In the U.S. and Britain, they support and admire their champions. For some reason we didn’t take that approach.”
For the entire article, please go to the Globe and Mail website: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/managing/at-the-top/tecks-don-lindsay-weathers-the-storm/article1602615/