September 5, 2012 – Republic of Mining

Honourable Joe Oliver – Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Speech at Canaccord Genuity Corporation (Toronto – September 4, 2012)

September 5, 2012

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“Natural Resources: Canada’s Advantage, Canada’s Opportunity”

Introduction

Thanks very much, David, and thanks to everyone for joining us.

It’s something of an occasion today, because I have some impressive new numbers from Canada’s natural resource sector to share with Canadians. And this is a great place to announce it, in the heart of Toronto’s financial services industry, which has contributed so much to Canadian capital formation, industrial growth and prosperity for Canadians across the country.

We all know that natural resources have been a key driver of Canada’s economy for decades. There’s good reason for that. This country has a tremendous natural wealth: huge capacities and reserves of energy, including the third-largest proven oil reserves in the world. We have tremendous hydroelectric capacity, massive tracts of forests and an abundance of minerals and metals. Of course, it’s not enough to have the resources.

You have to do something with them and very few people have capitalized on their natural bounty the way Canadians have. Only five countries produce more oil than we do.

Australia’s ambitious new coal frontier blown off track – Rebekah Kebede (Globe and Mail – September 4,2012)

September 5, 2012

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.

PERTH – Reuters – Tumbling coal prices and tough financing threaten to derail tens of billions of dollars of planned investment in Australia’s Galilee Basin, a so-far untapped reserve with the potential to make the country the world’s top thermal coal exporter.

Emboldened by record coal prices in recent years, Australian mining magnates have teamed up with Chinese and Indian groups such as GVK Power and Infrastructure Ltd. and Adani Enterprises to develop huge mines in Galilee, a remote outback area in Queensland state.

They had big plans: five developments to ramp up production to more than 180 million tonnes by the end of the decade, double Australia’s current annual thermal coal exports. In addition, rail lines and ports to ship the coal, mostly to Asia.

But efforts to open up Galilee have been shaken by a 20-per-cent slide in Australian benchmark coal prices since the start of 2012 to just over $90 per tonne, as China’s demand has cooled.

Delays will mean Australia will miss out on overtaking Indonesia as the world’s No.1 thermal coal exporter and wipe out a big chunk of future coal supply.

Is it FedNor or FedMusk? – Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal Editorial (September 4, 2012)

September 5, 2012

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

Tony Clement has to go. His time as the boss of FedNor needs to end. Failing that, it’s time the Harper Conservatives admit they just aren’t interested in the concept of a regional economic development agency for Northern Ontario and end the farce that FedNor has become.

A news release issued Friday touted the creation of youth employment “across Northern Ontario” through the funding of 15 internships. As with most government press releases, it tries to make a big deal out of something that really won’t have a big impact. In fact, many of the internships are with organizations funded through taxpayers, so really it’s just draining the FedNor pot to help other tax spenders make their books look good.

What’s appalling is that seven of the 15 internships are in Clement’s riding of Parry Sound-Muskoka. The lone Northwestern Ontario riding represented by a Conservative didn’t fair so good. Greg Rickford’s Kenora riding accounted for zero out of 15 internships. Maybe if Rickford — or anyone not named Tony Clement — was the FedNor minister, the distribution wouldn’t have been so heavily weighted in one riding.

Clement clearly has not learned his lesson, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper clearly has not realized he needs to reel in this guy.

Nunavut mining rush attracts China-backed MMG – Pav Jordan (Globe and Mail – September 5, 2012)

September 5, 2012

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.

China-backed base metals producer MMG Ltd. is staking its claim in an industry race to the Canadian Arctic, filing plans to build two mines in Nunavut in the next six years.

MMG, which recently changed its name from Minmetals Resources Ltd., said on Tuesday it had submitted a project proposal for the Izok Corridor project – comprising the Izok Lake and High Lake deposits – to the Nunavut Impact Review Board and other authorizing agencies, starting a process that could see production as early as the last quarter of 2018.

Like other miners from Canada and abroad, MMG is looking for ways to grow as global resources become more scarce, and it is one of many global players with boots on the ground in Nunavut, where highly prospective geology boasts diverse deposits from uranium to iron ore, copper, zinc, gold, silver and even diamonds.

“There are a lot of minerals there, it is packed,” said Patricia Mohr, Scotiabank’s commodity economist in Toronto and a keynote speaker at the annual Nunavut Mining Symposium in Iqaluit, the territorial capital.

Bartolucci ‘very, very excited’ about the Ring of Fire – by Shawn Bell (Wawatay News – September 4, 2012)

September 5, 2012

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

Concerns that Ontario is planning to give a special ministerial exemption to Cliffs Natural Resources so that the American company can export raw ore from the Ring of Fire out of Canada were raised in the provincial legislature Aug. 28.

The MPP for Timmins-James Bay who brought up the issue was left scratching his head over Northern Development and Mines Minister Rick Bartolucci’s response.

On Aug. 28 NDP MPP Gilles Bisson asked Bartolucci whether the government is “in any way in discussions with Cliffs resources to sign a ministerial permit allowing ore to be shipped out of Canada?” Instead of answering the question, Bartolucci explained the government’s position on the mining development.

“We are very, very excited about the Ring of Fire,” Bartolucci said in his response. “There are several aspects that the government is speaking to Cliffs about, which will be no surprise to the member from Timmins–James Bay, because we were very, very excited. I think members on both sides of the House were very, very excited when Cliffs decided that they were going to build their processing plant in Ontario.”

Windmills, trains and Dalton McGuinty’s tin ear – by Thomas Walkom (Toronto Star – September 5, 2012)

September 5, 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.

Ontario outside of Greater Toronto is not universally happy with Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals. This is understatement. In North Bay, there is palpable anger at McGuinty’s decision to shut down the government-owned Ontario Northland Railway, a mainstay of the city since 1902.

In an unusually confrontational move, the president of the local chamber of commerce has called on Northern Development Minister Rick Bartolucci to resign over the decision — one expected to affect about 1,000 jobs. Farther north, in Timmins, posters opposing the ONR shutdown dot the city’s main streets.

Timmins has relied on the ONR to move semi-processed ore from the area’s mines. But there’s also a sense — even from people who rarely use the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission’s trains or buses — that the Liberal decision is a slap in their collective face.

McGuinty strategists may tell themselves that the three northeastern ridings through which the ONR runs don’t vote Liberal anyway — or at least didn’t in the last election.

Ethanol and how governments bought a cleverly-packaged scam – by Carol Goar (Toronto Star – September 5, 2012)

September 5, 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.

Carol Goar’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Carol Goar’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Remember Corn Cob Bob? The goofy-looking mascot for the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association — a farmer’s body with a bright yellow corn cob head — was ubiquitous a few years ago. So was his creator Kory Teneycke, executive director of the association.

They showed up farmers’ markets, fall fairs and holiday celebrations promoting ethanol. Then they started appearing at political events alongside MPs and cabinet ministers.

It was one of the most effective marketing campaigns in recent memory. By 2005, three provinces — Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario — had set mandatory standards for ethanol in gasoline. In 2006, Prime Minister Stephen Harper made it national; all Canadian gasoline and diesel had to contain 5 per cent ethanol. In 2008, he appointed he appointed Teneycke as communications director.

The ambitious 38-year-old lobbyist has moved on now. He is vice-president of Sun News Network. Corn Cob Bob has vanished.

Bartolucci should fend off calls for his resignation – by Brian MacLeod (Sudbury Star – September 5, 2012)

September 5, 2012

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

Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci is right to reject calls for his resignation or retirement in favour of a byelection. He is facing a storm of controversy over the privatization of the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission, but Bartolucci’s track record more than compensates for the difficulties he’s facing on behalf of a government trying to deal with a $15 billion deficit.

Bartolucci has had a productive career — at least, productive for his riding. It is understandable that people in North Bay, Timmins and Kapuskasing are upset. They’re losing their train service in favour of expanded bus service. In North Bay, hundreds of jobs may be lost if whoever buys the ONTC closes the rail service centre.

But the North was never going to escape the austerity provisions of a Liberal government. And this was indeed a government decision, not just a decision by Bartolucci in his capacity as minister of Northern Development and Mines. Look at who is affected the most, and look at the McGuinty government’s track record in such decisions. When the Liberals cancelled six major hospital projects in the last budget, five of them were in Progressive Conservative ridings, including one in Tory leader Tim Hudak’s home riding.