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

The government sure loves to throw the word “invest” around. When was the last time you heard the provincial government was paying for necessary road improvements (or, for that matter, simple road repairs)? It’s been a while, hasn’t it? That’s because the government doesn’t pay for those things — it invests in the province’s infrastructure.

A business grant? Nah. Investing in the economy, or entrepreneurs, or somesuch. Providing long-term care beds is an investment in the province’s health-care system.

Well, the government has on its hands another excuse to use the word investment, and a much more legitimate one than usual.
Northwestern Ontario has been, for some time, calling on the government to get on board with the looming mining boom.

They’re looking for — ahem — investments in the province’s infrastructure, the ones that will be needed when the various in-the-works mines are up-and-running. Read the rest of this entry »

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

Contrary to Premier Brad Wall’s spin, BHP Billiton’s decision to delay making a final go-ahead decision on the massive Jansen potash mine should not be somehow misconstrued as good news.
 
When the globe’s biggest mining company is suddenly struggling and putting on hold its decision to build a $13 billion mine in your jurisdiction, it’s anything but good news. If anything, the Billiton announcement adds credence to the notion that Saskatchewan’s eight-year boom might be done.
 
That said, Wall did provide a few compelling points as to why this isn’t necessarily the worst news. The premier’s Grant Devinesque optimism came in reaction to news emerging from Billiton’s six-month financial report, which showed a 58 per cent drop (or about $5.5 billion decline) in profits, largely due to weak prices for the copper, iron ore, coal, nickel, aluminum and natural gas it produces. As a result, the mining giant announced it was cancelling expansions to Australian iron ore and copper operations, pegged at a combined $50 billion, and would delay final approval of Jansen until next year, at the earliest. Read the rest of this entry »

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

First public display of special forces unit

Harper told a group of military men and women that having forces in the North was
crucial to protecting the oil, natural gas and mining deposits that his government
sees as key to the country’s economic future.
 
“Through history and geography, it has become Canada’s destiny to protect a large
portion of our planet’s North. Canada has been a consistent champion of the Arctic
as a zone of responsible development, environmental protection and international
peace,” Harper told troops during a speech aboard HMCS St. John’s.

The Canadian Forces brought out of the shadows its elite special forces unit Friday, put-ting Joint Task Force 2 on display for Prime Minister Stephen Harper on a day when the prime minister said the military could – and would – be ready to defend the North’s abundant natural resources.
 
The unprecedented view of and access to the highly secretive JTF-2, whose members’ names and faces are not publicly known, was the first time the elite unit put on a public demonstration of its capabilities, boarding a moving vessel by sea and air in Hudson Bay in a prepared scenario where a suspected terrorist was aboard an ecotourism vessel headed for Canada. Read the rest of this entry »

The Vancouver Sun, a broadsheet daily paper first published in 1912, has the largest circulation in the province of British Columbia.

Politically charged issue could have ramifications for Stephen Harper in the next election
 
Canadian history is packed with riveting battles over natural resource developments from the oilsands and dams to mining, salmon fishing and old-growth forest clearcutting.
 
But observers struggle to pinpoint an example in living memory of a project that has gripped the public for such a sustained period as Calgarybased Enbridge Inc.’s proposed Northern Gateway oilsands pipeline to the West Coast.
 
“I have never in my experience observed such a reaction to any big project, probably since back when they were drowning villages” to construct the St. Lawrence Seaway in the 1950s, said former B.C. senator and ex-federal energy minister Pat Carney. During the Brian Mulroney era, Carney dismantled the deeply controversial and divisive national energy program. “It’s like it touched an inner nerve.”
 
Interest is fuelled in large part by the wide range of crucial issues: the pace of oilsands development, climate change, wealth-sharing, supertanker safety, first nations rights, fisheries protection and economic growth in an uncertain global climate.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Daily Press is the city of Timmins broadsheet newspaper.

TIMMINS – When most people think of industrial tours, they are often reminded of the story of Willy Wonka and the fabled golden ticket.
 
Standing outside of the Timmins Chamber of Commerce, with a ticket for the Goldcorp industrial tour, I laughed to myself about how true this golden ticket scenario was in my particular case. The humour carried me all the way to my seat and the less than comfortable school bus that would be our chauffeur for the afternoon.
 
“We will be touring the Dome open pit,” Nicole Charbonneau said as she addressed the bus load of people. “Then we will move out into the McIntyre, Conarium and Gillies reclamation sites, along with an overview of the Hollinger Pit preparations.”
 
Charbonneau, a environmental biologist for Goldcorp would be the guide for this three-hour golden tour. Her role in the management and continued development of the reclamation sites behind the McIntyre’s No. 11 headframe made her the perfect voice to speak on behalf of Goldcorp. Read the rest of this entry »

Northern Ontario’s First Nations Voice: http://wawataynews.ca/

Promoting the traditional use of northern waterways and the need for protection of its watershed, a group of paddlers from Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation has embarked on a canoe trip to Fort Severn.
 
Fourteen paddlers in seven canoes left KI on August 24. They expect to arrive in Fort Severn after nine or ten days on the rivers. Richard Anderson, KI’s watershed community worker, said the trip is about more than just following a trading route that his ancestors travelled every year.
 
“The trip is for awareness that we are protecting our watersheds for future generations,” Anderson said. “The Elders have taught us that our water is very important for us up here, and we should keep it that way.” Anderson has done the journey from KI to Fort Severn 11 times, and he still marvels at the efforts of his ancestors who used to do the trip there and back laden with supplies.
 
He said there are quite a few portages along the way, some retaining signs of their use through the ages. There are also a number of significant historic sites along the rivers, including grave sites that the community group will honour during the trip, Anderson said. Read the rest of this entry »

“Here is the big picture. In the next ten years, more than 500 large new development
projects will be proposed for Canada. Together these new investments will be worth
more than half a trillion dollars. This means jobs and growth, jobs and growth that
Canada needs as we continue to navigate our way through a troubled global economy.”
(Prime Minister Stephen Harper – August 21, 2012)

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for that warm welcome. Thank you particularly, Leona, for that introduction, and also for all the great work you’re doing as our minister responsible for the three territories.

I’m delighted to be here on this, my seventh consecutive summer tour of Canada’s North, and there’s no place I’d rather begin than here in Yukon. I’d like to welcome all the dignitaries as well, Premier Pasloski, Chief McGuinty, and elder-in-training Harper.

You look too young to be an elder, so I’ll go along with elder-in-training. Minister Duncan, of course, joins us, territorial ministers Cathers, Nixon, Dixon, Senator Lang, and of course, your Member of Parliament and our emcee for today, Ryan Leef.

I’d also like to express appreciation to you, Darren Pylot, and to everyone here at Capstone Mining for your hospitality and for making your facilities available to us today.

Our visit to Minto Mine is timely because responsible resource development is going to be critical for many years to come, not just for the Northern economy, but for Canada’s economy as a whole, and you can see that here with people who have come from all over Canada to work here. Read the rest of this entry »

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

The consensus view right now is that all companies in the mining industry are struggling because of high costs and falling commodity prices. This isn’t entirely true.

Take Amec PLC, the giant resource project management and consulting firm. In its latest financials, the U.K.based company reported a 37% jump in year-over-year revenue, along with a 25% rise in diluted earnings per share. And in Australia, mining services firms made headlines this week by reporting their best results.

“The order book has been maintained at record levels. We see continued demand for our services, and this has not been significantly impacted by the ongoing economic uncertainty,” Amec said.

Those results from a major industry services firm are a total disconnect from mining companies themselves. Over the past several weeks, miners have reported significant drops in profit, deferrals of key projects, and firings of chief executives who failed to boost the stock prices. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Sixty-one years ago, a lowly Calgary employee of U.S. multinational Sun Oil Co. wrote a subversive letter to the company brass in Philadelphia. The message spit in the eye of his local managers in Alberta.

“I have long felt that our company should take a permit to explore for oil from the Tar Sands of Alberta,” 30-year-old Ned Gilbert wrote in September, 1951, in defiance of his immediate superiors, who opposed the idea of going any further than their first tentative steps in the area.

Mr. Gilbert appealed over their heads to Sun’s senior team, seeking the go-ahead to lease a tract of remote, undeveloped forest north of Fort McMurray that was believed to contain 800 million barrels of oil.

That letter set off a chain reaction that resonates to this day. Now 91 and living in a retirement home in Calgary, Mr. Gilbert helped tip the balance in persuading Sun, the precursor to giant Suncor Energy, to stay in the bitumen game. The company ended up becoming the first commercial developer of the economic juggernaut now known as the oil sands. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

“Everything in modern life is congested—our politics, our trade, our professions and cities have one thing in common: they are all congested. There is no elbow-room anywhere . . . There can be but one path of escape, and that is backwards.”

— Arthur Penty, Guilds and the Social Crisis, 1919

Every oil company and petrostate today whistles a patriarchal tune. The American Petroleum Institute says the world needs more energy because oil drives “the American dream” and gives people the freedom to move anywhere, anytime. For Rex Tillerson, chairman and ceo of Exxon Mobil Corporation, the recipe for global prosperity is simple: “We must produce more energy from all available and commercially viable resources.”

Pipeline builders echo that the world is “clamouring for more energy.” With religious fervor, Shell executives swear that they will “produce more energy for a world with more people” so that millions can climb up “the energy ladder.” Read the rest of this entry »

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.

The theme of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s annual trip to Canada’s North this year has been the supremacy of the resource economy — the “great national dream” of reaping the economic bounty of the region — over competing claims. And appearances to the contrary, his announcement of a new national park is consistent with that theme.
 
Nááts’ihch’oh National Park Reserve, which comprises 4,840 square kilometres in the Northwest Territories, is a welcome new jewel in our rich parks system. It will protect large portions of the upper waterhead of the South Nahanni River, as well as the area’s grizzly and woodland caribou habitats. It will also preserve part of a place of particular spiritual significance to the First Nations peoples in the area.
 
There is, however, some concern about how the government will manage to maintain the site and facilitate access. While Harper has commendably announced no fewer than five new national parks since taking office in 2006, his government has also slashed Parks Canada’s budget, forcing many sites to reduce operating hours or cut other services. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

ABOARD HMCS ST. JOHN’S—Three rigid inflatable boats speed across the choppy waters of Hudson Bay, slow alongside a fishing vessel and send soldiers clambering up the sides.

Two helicopters swoop in overhead. They slow to a hover 10 metres off the deck, ropes drop down and other soldiers rappel to the moving boat below. They hit the deck fast and hard and unclip from the ropes with guns at the ready.

It’s a blazingly quick assault as the soldiers take control of the vessel and take down the would-be suspect onboard in a roughhouse tackle that sends the man sprawling to the deck. In the blink of an eye, Canada’s elite warriors were out of the shadows.

Canadian special operations forces (SOF) soldiers — including members of Joint Task Force 2 — put on an unprecedented public display of their fighting talents Friday. Never before have JTF2 soldiers held such a demonstration to show off their skills, highly honed to take on terrorists, end hostage takings or in this case, board a suspicious ship on the high seas. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/home.html

Prime Minister Harper says we’re ready to fight to protect our northern resources

CHURCHILL, MB – This year’s Operation Nanook sent a clear message – Canada is ready and willing to protect the North and its Arctic sovereignty. The military billed it as the largest and most complex northern training operation the armed forces has held to date – taking place over the course of a month in both the Western Arctic and in northern Manitoba.
 
And on Friday, it included the public unveiling of the special operations forces, and the first time the elite unit displayed its capabilities to Canadians and the rest of the world.
 
Brig.-Gen. Denis Thompson, commander of the special operations forces, said the goal of the display was “deterring those who would do harm to us and reassuring the Canadian public they could handle any threat. ”It’s important for them to be seen to be contributing to Canada’s defence because a lot of what we do is in the shadows,” he said. Read the rest of this entry »

http://www.businessweek.com/

On May 29, in the bottom of a tin-mining pit on Bangka Island in Indonesia, a wall about 16 feet high collapsed, sending a wave of earth crashing down on a 40-year-old father of two. His name was Rosnan. The dirt crushed his legs, sent something sharp slicing through his right thigh, and buried him from the waist down. His partner, panicked but unhurt, scrambled out of the pit screaming for help. About 20 other miners rushed in to dig Rosnan out with their bare hands.

“He kept repeating, ‘Please, please help me,’ ” recalls Rosnan’s son, Dian Chandra, 20, who rode in the back of a car with his father to a nearby hospital. Rosnan lost too much blood. “I couldn’t find a pulse,” says Dr. Mario, the emergency room physician on duty. Dr. Mario declared Rosnan dead at about 3 p.m. (Like many Indonesians, including Dr. Mario, Rosnan had one name.)

Back at the mine, someone stuck a withered sapling into the soft bottom of the pit near the spot where Rosnan fell—a far too frequent sight in the mines of Bangka, where Rosnan was the first of six to die on the job during a single week this spring. The other victims didn’t make it to the hospital. All, including a 15-year-old boy, were buried alive.

Three days after Rosnan’s death, and following Friday prayers at the local mosque, his family and friends gathered to mourn him at his brother’s cinder-block home. They sat on the bare floor, sharing a meal of rice, noodles, and fish stew. Rosnan’s 57-year-old brother, Rani, recalls that Rosnan had few options outside the pit. “We have to live,” he says. “We need money.” Read the rest of this entry »