‘Rugged’ first year as MPP [Vic Fedeli Northern Ontario issues] – by Gord Young (North Bay Nugget – December 29, 2012)

http://www.nugget.ca/

The ongoing saga of the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission will remain this riding’s top issue in the new year, says Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli.

In a year-end interview, Fedeli said he believes rail will likely be the next division to be sold after Ontera, the ONTC’s telecommunications division.

“I think they’re scrambling to sell Ontera as quickly as possible,” said Fedeli, noting the provincial Conservatives have called for the rail freight division to remain public, plus a strategic review of the remainder of the Crown agency.

A request for proposals was issued Dec. 17 for the purchase of Ontera to firms that pre-qualified as potential buyers in October; and the province has said the successful bidder will be announced in the spring. The province has also indicated it hopes to complete rest of the divestment process by spring as well.

Fedeli said it’s difficult to say what the strategic review his party has promised would involve because it’s unclear what ONTC assets will be left by the time there’s a provincial election.

He said the Conservatives would also move the ONTC from under the Ministry of Northern Development to the Ministry of Transportation. In addition, Fedeli said he signed a petition supporting the proposed New Deal to revitalize the ONTC involving the creation of federal ports authority because it involves keeping the rail freight division in public hands, as well as the transporting of ore from the Ring of Fire chromite find in the James Bay area via rail.

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Vale Is Staring At A Q4 Loss On Impairments And Additional Tax Charges – by Trefis Team (December 27, 2012)

http://www.trefis.com/?from=link

Vale (NYSE:VALE) seems all but certain to report a loss in the fourth quarter of the ongoing financial year. The company has suffered two major setbacks in the last few days. Firstly, it announced that it will book a $4.2 billion fourth-quarter pretax charge after lowering the valuation of a nickel mine and its stake in aluminum producer Norsk Hydro ASA. Also, last week the company announced tax losses of nearly $483 million relating to cases in Brazil and Switzerland. Of this, $451 million will be booked in the balance sheet for Q4 and the rest of the amount will be adjusted in the next financial year. [1]

These two setbacks are only recent additions to a long list. Tumbling iron ore prices on a weak demand outlook, failure to begin docking Valemax ships in China due to permission issues, and the shelving of the Simandou project in Guinea due to an uncertain and adverse operating environment are some issues which have been highlighted frequently in the past. The company has been forced to contract its capital expenditure plans for next year and announce sale of non-core assets in order to reduce costs and improve efficiency. However, any gains due to these are certain to be negated due to the latest charges as far as earnings are concerned. [2]

What Is The Reason For A Writedown In The Nickel Business?

Vale will take a $2.85 billion pretax writedown on its Brazilian nickel project Onca Puma. The problems in its nickel business have been festering for some time.

As reported in its third quarter earnings results, lackluster performance of the nickel segment has been one of the largest drags on profit. Vale has been trying to diversify away from iron ore and hopes that nickel would reduce its dependence on iron ore.

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Mining, forestry on MPPs’ agendas for 2013 – by CBC Radio Sudbury (December 28, 2012)

http://www.cbc.ca/sudbury/

Area members of provincial parliament want to expand northern Ontario economy

Northern members of provincial parliament are setting their agendas for 2013, but many MPPs don’t seem to be on the same page. For Sudbury Liberal MPP Rick Bartolucci, the coming year needs to focus on promoting mining in northern Ontario.

“If you’re a mining company, this is where you want to be, because it’s booming,” he said. New Democrat France Gelinas said she wants to see a stimulated economy that will produce better paying jobs.

The Nickel Belt MPP said “way too many people can’t make ends meet. There are some jobs that we have recovered since the recession, but a lot of those jobs are precarious.”

Growing forestry

Over in Nipissing, Vic Fedeli said forestry is at the top of his agenda. The conservative MPP said he wants to re-introduce his private member’s bill to allow buildings taller than two stories to be built with wood — a bill that was lost after prorogation.

“All it needed was to come to the floor for one minute and have a vote and we would have had six-storey wood building in Ontario,” Fedeli said.

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Attawapiskat: No end in sight to problems of inadequate housing, unemployment, drug addiction – by Raveena Aulakh (Toronto Star – December 29, 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.

ATTAWAPISKAT, ONT. — Many years ago, Helen Kataquapit lived in a house. A real house that was warm, had a bedroom, a kitchen with a stove and a washroom with running water. That memory is fast fading.

The 52-year-old grandmother — who lives in a room not much larger than a walk-in closet in two trailers shared by dozens of others in one forlorn corner of Attawapiskat — knows she may never live in a house again.

“I submitted my name years ago and they kept saying there will be a house, but I am single and at the bottom of their list,” Kataquapit says with a sigh. “This place has gotten worse over the years, don’t know if anything will change it. It makes me sad, what’s happening here.”

A year ago, few could place this remote Cree reserve on Canada’s map. Then, in the middle of a desolate winter, came the news of the housing crisis and the community became the poster child of native neglect. Waves of journalists arrived on the reserve with its deplorable housing, wrote heartbreaking stories and left. So yes, this is an anniversary of sorts.

But an anniversary means nothing here. It is a place where time stands still. Nothing has changed in the past year, except for 22 new trailer-homes that some lucky families moved into. Everything else is the same: poverty and dependence, unemployment, drug and alcohol abuse, substandard education and health care, inadequate housing and questionable governance.

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Mining industry workers ‘need more than 3 days’ training – CBC News Sudbury (December 28, 2012)

http://www.cbc.ca/sudbury/

Mining companies both embrace and reject Ontario’s shortened underground training standards

Some mining schools in northern Ontario are choosing not to offer the new shorter training program approved by the province. A year ago, the required training to work underground was shortened from several weeks to three days.

However, some people — like Bob Mack at Northern College — say they’re hearing the opposite from the mining industry.

Mack said gold mining companies in Timmins and Dubreuilville are thrilled with Northern’s 12-week training program and don’t want to see it changed. “The underground setting is not necessarily dangerous,” he said.

“But, certainly, I think you need more than three days to get those skills and abilities to work in that setting.” Other schools do offer the shorter course, and some mining companies run new employees through it as well.

Mine mill union president Richard Paquin lobbied for the province to make the change.

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[ONTC Railway] New Deal tops priority list – by Jennifer Hamilton-McCharles (North Bay Nugget – December 28, 2012)

http://www.nugget.ca/

Advancing a proposed New Deal to revitalize the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission is Nipissing-Timiskaming MP Jay Aspin’s top priority heading into 2013.

“It’s got to move ahead . . . everybody has got to get behind this – everybody,” said Aspin, suggesting the ONTC and its assets are too important to be piece-mealed or lost altogether.

Aspin has thrown his support behind the General Chairperson’s Association’s proposal which calls for the transfer of ONTC assets to a new ports authority. And he has been helping the group, which represents unionized workers at the ONTC, gain support for the plan.

But Aspin said his role will also be to advocate for approval in the House of Commons to make the James Bay and Lowlands Port Authority a reality once the application is to the federal government has been completed.

The plan, which also requires provincial approval, includes establishing a rail line rather than a road to ship thousands of tons per day of chromite, nickel and other materials from the Ring of Fire site.

In a year-end interview Thursday, Aspin said the next item on his priority list is to make way for the arrival of the North Bay Battalion hockey team by securing a federal contribution toward the $12-million in renovations at Memorial Gardens.

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Northern Ontario chromite mining has first nation worried for water safety- Heather Socffield (The Canadian Press/Globe and Mail – December 27, 2012)

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.

MARTEN FALLS, ONT. — The Canadian Press – Water has consumed the daily routine of Chief Eli Moonias, and it’s making him visibly agitated. His small, fly-in reserve in Northern Ontario has had a boil-water advisory for seven long years, and there is no end in sight.

Now he feels the long-term quality of the water that surrounds his reserve may well be at risk, too. Mining companies have flooded into the James Bay lowlands, into the area now dubbed the Ring of Fire. They’ve found an enormous expanse of chromite, enough nickel for a mine and other metals that may hold potential in future years.

The mining holds the promise of thousands of jobs over the next decade, if not longer – as long as the proposals can pass environmental muster and garner the support of the region’s first nations. But chromite also poses significant challenges to the environment that can be difficult to manage.

“We know we’re going to get some benefits once they start development. We know that in some ways, we’ll be involved as well. The issue is the environment,” says Mr. Moonias.

He looks at development in the oil sands and hears about the inedible fish and the poisoned Athabaska River. He vows never to let anything like that happen to the Albany and Ogoki rivers that flow through the muskeg and meet at Marten Falls.

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