Canadian Media Resource Articles – Page 255

British Columbia Indigenous rights bill should not be a problem for miners: industry group – by Staff (Mining.com – October 28, 2019)

October 28, 2019

https://www.mining.com/

The Association for Mineral Exploration or AME, a Vancouver-based industry group, issued a communiqué stating that the sector expects “minimal immediate change” following the introduction of the new BC Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act.

Last week, the government of British Columbia in the figure of Premier John Horgan tabled Bill 41 on First Nations rights in the legislature. If passed, BC will be the first province in the country to legally implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

This means that Indigenous peoples will be included in all decision-making that impacts their rights and that all provincial laws would have to be aligned with the standards of the UN declaration.

This mess of an election has definitely changed the climate in the West – by Rex Murphy (National Post – October 26, 2019)

October 28, 2019

https://nationalpost.com/

Justin Trudeau has stated his priority going forward will be climate change. He sees it as “unifying.” Many are claiming the election was “a climate-change election.” I beg to differ on both counts.

Legitimizing the mess we just endured under the explanatory banner that it was a vote about climate change is claptrap, and a pretty low grade of claptrap at that.

Not even the watery pilgrimage of the sainted Greta Thunberg to our shores, and the emptying of half the schoolrooms of the nation for what was called a climate emergency march, had any perceptible effect on Monday’s vote.

The road to nowhere: Claims Ontario’s Ring of Fire is worth $60-billion are nonsense – by Niall McGee and Jeff Gray (Globe and Mail – October 26, 2019)

October 26, 2019

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has talking points he’s fond of repeating – over and over again – and one of his favourites is a pledge to build a billion-dollar road to a boggy, remote region of Northern Ontario known as the Ring of Fire.

When asked about the promise by a reporter at a plowing match in September, Mr. Ford repeated almost verbatim an infamous tweet from last year’s provincial election campaign: “If I have to hop on a bulldozer myself, we’re going to start building roads to the Ring of Fire.”

“You’re going to see me on that bulldozer,” Mr. Ford declared, with a confident chuckle. The declaration by the Ontario premier is just one example of the big talk over the past decade by politicians of all stripes about the Ring of Fire.

Call for immigration boom so Canada reaches 100 million people a blueprint for more state intervention – by Terence Corcoran (Financial Post – October 25, 2019)

October 25, 2019

https://business.financialpost.com/

A report from an organization co-founded by Dominic Barton brings a certain Xi Jinping tone to prescriptions for a bigger, bolder Canada

In October 2016, about a year after Justin Trudeau’s Liberals were elected with a majority, the government’s Advisory Council on Economic Growth’s first report set out a bold agenda: Canada should aim to become a nation of 100 million by the end of the century.

The council, headed by one of Trudeau’s economic gurus, Dominic Barton, proposed increasing annual immigration to 450,000 a year by 2021, launching the country toward escalating prosperity created by “skilled and talented people” eager to build a nation of “inclusive economic growth.”

Through the fevered immigration environment of the last three years, the objective has mostly faded from the policy agenda. In the wake of another election, Barton and other advocates of an immigration boom are back with another report on the same ambitious theme.

Teck Resources to lay off staff, cut spending as global uncertainty weighs on commodity prices – by Staff (Financial Post – October 24, 2019)

October 25, 2019

https://business.financialpost.com/

Teck Resources Ltd. said it would eliminate jobs, start a cost-cutting program and defer some planned capital projects amid global economic uncertainty that’s weighing on commodity prices.

The Vancouver-based company is aiming to reduce around $500 million from its spending plan through the end of 2020, according to its third-quarter results statement.

“Over the past few years, we have focused our attention on maximizing production to capture margin during periods of higher commodity prices,” said Don Lindsay, president and CEO of the company. “However, current global economic uncertainties are having a significant negative effect on the prices for our products, particularly steelmaking coal.”

‘It’s time Canadian companies stand up’: Agnico-Eagle CEO vows to make the case for energy and mining – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – October 25, 2019)

October 25, 2019

https://business.financialpost.com/

Boyd said he plans to be particularly vocal about the need for federal government investment in Canada’s Arctic

Two days after a federal election left Canada fractured along regional lines, and divided on many issues including whether to build energy pipelines, Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd. chief executive Sean Boyd said he plans to begin advocating more forcefully for resource development.

The comments came in an interview with the Financial Post on Thursday, when Agnico reported record quarterly gold production of 477,000 ounces, and which has helped propel the company’s stock up by 40 per cent surge this year.

As the company grows into its role as one of Canada’s largest mining companies, Boyd said he plans to be particularly vocal about the need for federal government investment in Canada’s Arctic. His company has spent the past decade building two mines in Nunavut, which still largely lacks roads, energy grids, higher education resources and other infrastructure, and said it plans to use the experience to propound the benefits of mining.

Noront officials grilled on proposed Soo smelter – by Jairus Patterson (CTV News Northern Ontario – October 24, 2019)

October 24, 2019

https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/

Thursday night in Sault Ste. Marie, residents had an opportunity to speak with Noront Resources officials regarding the ferrochrome smelter that is expected to be built in the city over the next decade as part of the Ring of Fire project.

For five hours, the Noront team was grilled by the public with concerns regarding the proposed smelter. CTV News spoke with Noront President and Chief Executive Officer Alan Coutts at the event. Coutts said his team was asked a lot of questions.

“Some that we can answer and some that we can’t answer yet. We’re taking notes, we’re trying to engage. We’re trying to provide the information that we can,” The information was presented in an open house format in a hotel boardroom with everyone free to move around. It is a set up many residents say just did not work.

Nuclear energy is a vital part of solving the climate crisis – by John Gorman (Globe and Mail – October 24, 2019)

October 24, 2019

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

I never thought I would become a passionate champion for nuclear energy. But after 20 years of advocating for renewable energy, I’ve overcome the misconceptions I had in the past and I am convinced by the evidence we can’t fight climate change without nuclear.

When I was the chief executive of the Canadian Solar Industries Association, I thought the “holy grail” was to make renewable energy cost-competitive so it could fulfill our energy needs. Today, wind and solar are among the cheapest forms of energy in many places around the world. The generous subsidies that fuelled early growth are no longer at play, yet the growth of wind and solar continues.

Despite the strong growth, the percentage of emissions-free electricity in the world has not increased in 20 years. It’s stuck at 36 per cent, according to a recent IEA report.

Safe-haven gold aims to reinvent itself as a ‘climate risk mitigation’ asset with ‘net zero’ emissions – by Gabriel Friedman (Financial Post – October 23, 2019)

October 23, 2019

https://business.financialpost.com/

The industry is repositioning itself as an asset investors would be eager to add to their portfolio to lower the overall emissions of their investments

This September, Newmont Goldcorp summoned a host of local and provincial dignitaries to Chapleau, Ontario, where it christened its Borden gold project, ‘the mine of the future.’

In an industry where a 40-ton diesel truck is considered modest-sized, the company wanted to build Borden into Canada’s first all-electric underground gold mine, a plan that has taken years — since the company was called Goldcorp — and cost hundreds of millions of dollars as executives criss-crossed the world in search of things like an electric haul truck.

“We call it our $300-million pilot project,” Brent Bergeron told the Financial Post in 2018, who at the time headed up Goldcorp’s Corporate Affairs and Sustainability.

Election has done little to ease anxiety in Canada’s business community – by Heather Scoffield (Toronto Star – October 23, 2019)

October 23, 2019

https://www.thestar.com/

Financial markets may have shrugged off Canada’s election results on Tuesday in spite of dire warnings from Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer that a Liberal victory would surely mean out-of-control deficits and irresponsible new taxes.

But Justin Trudeau should not for a moment take the markets’ nonchalance as an endorsement of his plans for economic management. The business community is anything but nonchalant, and the East-West schism that the electoral results are already exacerbating only makes matters more uncertain.

It’s true that some traditional critics of big deficits — which, under the new government, will continue — seem largely unperturbed. Both the Bank of Montreal and Scotiabank saw little economic damage from the Liberals’ fiscal plans.

With no voice in the oilpatch, Liberals face challenge engaging ‘angry and scared’ western provinces – by Geoffrey Morgan (Financial Post – October 23, 2019)

October 23, 2019

https://business.financialpost.com/

‘We’re into our fifth year of a downturn and people are angry. Not just angry but scared’

CALGARY — The Liberals’ total rout in Alberta and Saskatchewan and the unceremonious unseating of Natural Resources Minster Amarjeet Sohi has posed another headache for the re-elected ruling party — finding a minister who can engage with the country’s biggest oil and gas producing provinces.

The Liberals lost their seats in Calgary, Edmonton and Regina during Monday’s federal election, resulting in a Liberal minority government without representation in the country’s two largest oil and gas producing provinces.

A minority government, potentially aided by parties hostile to the oilpatch, has already cast a gloom over downtown Calgary. The mood was further darkened after Husky Energy Inc. announced Tuesday it was laying off an undisclosed number of employees, adding to Alberta’s high unemployment rate, which stands at 6.6 per cent — a full point above the national average.

Health and safety bigger risks to artisanal miners that conflict minerals — report – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – October 22, 2019)

October 23, 2019

https://www.mining.com/

Risks related to occupational health and safety are more prevalent than human rights abuses and conflict financing among global artisanal and small-scale miners (ASM), a new study by German supply chain auditor RCS Global Group has found.

The group’s Better Mining platform, piloted as ‘Better Cobalt’ on a cobalt supply chain from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) revealed that 26% of all registered incidents in the past year were related to health and safety issues, while only 13% had to do rights abuses and minerals financing conflict.

The Berlin-based organization used mobile technology to gather data from from five separate ASM sites in DRC and Rwanda, focusing on informal and small miners digging for cobalt, copper and the so-called 3TG (gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten).

CANADA ELECTION: Obama wasn’t the only American interfering in the Canadian election – by Vivian Krause (Financial Post – October 22, 2019)

October 22, 2019

https://business.financialpost.com/

Barack Obama’s tweet in support of Justin Trudeau wasn’t the only outside influence in the 2019 election. In eight battleground ridings, Leadnow, a Vancouver non-profit with roots in the United States, was busy helping to try to defeat Andrew Scheer and the Conservatives.

According to emails sent to anyone who subscribes, Leadnow made 150,000 phone calls, and in Greater Toronto, it ran radio ads against the Conservatives.

Leadnow is one of the lead organizations in a Rockefeller-funded international effort called The Tar Sands Campaign that aims to land-lock oil and natural gas from Western provinces, keeping Canada out of the global oil market.

CANADA ELECTION: Western anger was hot before Monday’s election. Now it’s molten – by Rex Murphy (National Post – October 22, 2019)

October 22, 2019

https://nationalpost.com/

Among the most ludicrous of campaign pitches, and there were so many to choose from, was the latter-day lunacy that if you, the voter, wanted to save the planet, you had to vote Liberal. The hubris in that claim was equal to its idiocy.

Canadian elections are not about the world. It is not ours to save, or (all deference to Greta the Grinch) to destroy. Canadian elections are about Canada, how to make it better, stronger, more healthful and secure for its citizens. They are — or should be — exercises where party leaders refresh our sense of Canada’s aspirations and ideals as a country, a nation.

Above all they should be about making sure the arrangement we have with ourselves — the Confederation — goes through an ever-necessary renewal, answers to contemporary challenges, and continues to secure the peaceful, prosperous and highly successful country that Canada is. Well … a person can dream, can’t he?

CANADA ELECTION: Canada’s Trudeau hangs onto power in election; aides see two-year respite – by David Ljunggren (Reuters Canada – October 22, 2019)

October 22, 2019

https://ca.reuters.com/

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hung onto power after a tight election on Monday that saw his government reduced to a minority, but aides predicted he would be able to govern for two years without many problems.

Trudeau, one of the world’s most prominent progressive politicians, struggled to overcome the effects of two domestic scandals. His Liberals were leading or elected in 157 seats, a decrease of 20, preliminary results showed.

He now looks set to govern with the left-leaning New Democrats, who have 24 seats. Together the two parties can muster a majority 180 seats in the 338-seat House of Commons.