Where does mining fit into the Ontario provincial Budget?

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.

 

Political analysts will undoubtedly remind us that details of the Liberal government’s provincial Budget delivered on March 29 will be repeated many times over leading up to the Ontario election on October 6.  The Budget contains specifics about protecting health care and education, jobs and growth and promises to make the delivery of public services more efficient.

But where does mining fit into the government’s plans?  It might not be obvious from a cursory reading of Budget documents.  There are no references to mining in either Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan’s Budget speech itself, titled “Turning the corner to a better tomorrow,” or the press release and its supporting background papers.  However, if you delve into the 300-page book on “Budget Papers,” you will be able to piece together some clues.

In the chapter “Key Ontario Sectors,” two pages are dedicated to Mining and Opportunities in Ontario’s Ring of Fire.  “Mining, a traditionally strong part of the Ontario economy, is benefiting from growing world demand for commodities and from tax relief provided through Ontario’s tax plan for jobs and growth,” said the document.  “The government is supporting the development of new mineral deposits in the North and Far North, including helping promising mining opportunities in the Ring of Fire area of the Far North with potentially large deposits of minerals such as chromite, nickel, copper and platinum.”

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Vale’s man in Canada [Tito Martins] touted as new chief in Brazil – Andy Hoffman (Globe and Mail-March 31, 2011)

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. Andy Hoffman is the paper’s Asia-Pacific Reporter.

Tito Botelho Martins has endured a string of long and difficult winters in Canada. Now he’s in line for a triumphant return to sunny Rio de Janeiro.

The Toronto-based executive is being touted as the leading candidate to replace Roger Agnelli as the chief executive officer of Brazil’s Vale SA (VALE-N32.92-0.05-0.15%), the world’s top iron ore producer and one of the biggest mining companies on the planet.

Mr. Agnelli, the flashy former investment banker who has steered an aggressive decade-long expansion of Vale’s international operations, has fallen out of favour with Brazil’s government over corporate strategy. Unhappy with Mr. Agnelli’s perceived failure to invest enough in Brazilian mining and steel projects, Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff is understood to be using the government’s leverage as a key shareholder of Vale (through state pension funds), to force Mr. Agnelli to step aside.

Newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported that Mr. Martins, who was parachuted in to run Vale’s nickel and copper mining business from Toronto in early 2009, will be named Vale’s new CEO.

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Vale shuffle rumoured [Tito Martin likely new CEO]- by Carol Mulligan (Sudbury Star-March 31, 2011)

Carol Mulligan is a reporter for the Sudbury Star, the City of Greater Sudbury’s daily newspaper. cmulligan@thesudburystar.com

Speculation is rampant this week that Tito Botelho Martins is the man most likely to become the next chief executive officer of Vale. Martins, currently executive director for Base Metals for Vale and CEO for Vale Canada, works out of Toronto for the Brazil-based Vale.

A Brazilian n ews p a p e r was quoting two sources Wednesday who said Martins, 47, has a good chance of being named to the top job that has been held for years by Roger Agnelli. Cory McPhee, Vale Canada’s vice-president of corporate affairs, would only offer a no-comment Wednesday about the rumour.

“We are not commenting on the speculation around executive moves,” McPhee said in an e-mail to The Sudbury Star. Two high-ranking officials with United Steelworkers in Canada have been following the news about Martins with interest.

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