March 3, 2010 - No. 46
Federal Budget
The Government, Economy and Our
Accumulated Resources Must Serve the Well-Being of Canadians
Sudbury
Rally
Our
Resources Stay Here and Must Be Utilized in a Manner Beneficial to
the Communities
Thursday,
March 4 -- 9:00-11:00 am
Sudbury Airport
Buses from Timmins leave at 5:00 am and return at 6:00 pm. See details
below.
Organized by
Mine Mill Locals 598 and 599
Toronto
Rally
Support
Striking Vale Inco Workers in Sudbury,
Port Colborne and Voisey's Bay
Saturday,
March 6 -- 3:00 pm
Metro Convention Centre. See details below.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
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Federal Budget
• The Government, Economy and Our Accumulated
Resources Must Serve the Well-Being of Canadians
Vale Inco
• Hands Off Strikeforce 6500! Anti-Worker
Mercenaries Have No Right of Anonymity -- Condemn Vale Inco's Attempt
to Impose Censorship on Striking Workers - Dave Starbuck
• Sudbury News in Brief
Timmins, Ontario
• Reply to Minister of Northern Development
- Ben Lefebvre
Federal Budget
The Government, Economy and Our Accumulated Resources
Must Serve the Well-Being of Canadians
Today, the third
session of the 40th Parliament of
Canada will commence with the Speech from the Throne, followed
tomorrow, March 4 with a presentation of the federal budget.
For months in advance of this budget, the rich, their
political representatives, ideologues and media pundits have argued
back and forth that the federal deficit calls for either dramatic cuts
to federally funded social programs or substantial tax increases -- or
a combination of both.
These statements are bankrupt and bereft of any sense of
social responsibility. Cutting social programs, increasing individual
taxation and reducing corporate taxes are not solutions! Those in the
ruling elite spouting this nonsense accept no responsibility for the
present state of affairs yet would have
Canadians believe the same people in power for decades and responsible
for the current state of affairs are capable -- even interested -- in
solving the problems of the economy in favour of the nation and people
of Canada. Enough already!
Thirty years and more of similar anti-social measures by
the federal and provincial levels of government have rendered the
Canadian economy and society less stable and more susceptible to the
effects of the repeated on-going crises of capitalism. What have these
same policies solved since Mulroney,
Rae, Harris, Chretien, Martin, Harper, Charest and others began their
current anti-social crusade? They have made the situation worse as
every Canadian knows from the wrecking of manufacturing, skyrocketing
unemployment, increased social problems and economic crisis of the last
years. What has been solved
by these neo-liberal policies? Apparently, Canadians are back in a
similar leaky boat of deficits and debt. Economic apologists for the
rich are once again screaming about deficits, a "cumulative total of
budget shortfalls will hit $164 billion by 2014," and the need for
anti-social cutbacks, increased individual taxation
and reduced corporate taxes. That's a tired old song. Canadians have
already been through that history before and will not tolerate a
farcical rerun!
Preparations for the Unwanted Farce Begin with a Staged
Jousting Match Amongst the Ruling Elite
Canadians should be aware of a setup. A dark farce is
being prepared where the people are forced to line up and argue for one
or another neo-liberal bad policy of the rich: cutbacks and higher
individual
taxation versus a continuation of deficits and stimulus spending to pay
the rich. A scenario is being prepared where stimulus spending to pay
the rich inevitably leads to cutbacks in social programs and increased
individual taxation. It must not pass!
Back in December, Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty
said his government intended to continue "stimulus spending" in 2010
"to ensure the fragile economy makes a full recovery. But after that,
the government will usher in a period of frugality intended to balance
Ottawa's books again."
The big six banks and other monopolies have made it
clear in the corporate media that they expect federal stimulus spending
to continue to March 2011 and reach a total of $48 billion. This past
January, the President and CEO of the Canadian Council of Chief
Executives, John Manley, as well as the
CEO of the TD Bank and other members of the monopoly capitalist class
engaged in verbal jousting with the Prime Minister's Office over the
size and timing of these "stimulus measures" to pay the rich. Stimulus
spending provides the private financial enterprises and others such as
the auto and construction monopolies
with huge infusions of capital and "investment opportunities" at a time
when both have dried up because of the capitalist crisis.
At about the same time, the clamour for dramatic cuts to
social programs and significant individual tax increases was being
stoked. The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) Kevin Page publicly
criticized the Harper Conservative government saying, "We are going to
have to take drastic measures, either
spending reduction or tax increase, to get us back to [balanced
budgets]."
The PBO harkened back to the kind of neo-liberal
measures the Liberals and Conservatives at all government levels, and
NDP provincial governments took at the beginning of the anti-social
offensive and have continued more or less. The media reported that the
PBO, "recalled how deficits in the 1970s
and 1980s piled up to the breaking point in the early '90s when the
country was spending 35 cents of every dollar in revenue on servicing
public debt interest charges. By slashing government spending [the PBO
said] including the controversial decision to reduce transfer payments
[for social programs] to the provinces
and increasing taxes, Liberal governments reduced the interest payment
to 15 cents on every revenue dollar," which the PBO added was the
acceptable path to travel. The PBO forgot to clarify that increased
taxation was directed at individuals through such measures as the GST
while corporations have seen their
taxation continually reduced. Also, the PBO did not explain how the
neo-liberal path already travelled has landed us back in the same
situation where governments and media are once again screaming about
deficits and debt, and proposing to repeat the attacks on social
programs and the public service, increase individual
taxation and continue to reduce corporate taxes. Should the people not
conclude that something more profound is wrong with the relations
within the socialized economy when a so-called business cycle is
allowed to go up and down without radical measures to change the
situation? Canadians have direct experience
with the consequences of cutbacks to social programs and the public
service, increases in individual taxation and reduction of corporate
taxes. Canadians should not allow this farcical scenario to be played
out again without opposition. Worker politicians should lead widespread
discussion as to the causes of the economic
crisis and an elaboration of a human-centred program to lift the
country out of the crisis with policies and actions that favour the
people. At the very least, workers and their allies must not allow a
repeat of capital-centred policies that favour the rich and their
monopolies under the hoax of combating deficits and
debt for which they are responsible and from which they profit.
Drumbeat for a Repeat of the Old
In mid-January of this year Flaherty was still repeating
his assertion, "Ottawa can over time balance its books without having
to raise taxes or cut spending." Strange but true, that the drumbeat to
escalate the anti-social offensive in the name of "balancing the
budget"
and dealing with the impact of the economic crisis are such that the
Harper Conservatives, and former Mike Harris cabinet ministers like Jim
Flaherty, are made to look like small "l" liberals! One media pundit
declared, "The Harper Conservatives have so far shown little stomach
for unpopular belt-tightening measures."
("Flaherty's deficit plan," Toronto Star, December 23, 2009)
Wow! Leopards apparently do change their spots or is it the same
leopard with a bad paint job?
At the end of January, Finance Minister Flaherty
indicated the Harper Conservatives were indeed still on board the
stimulus train of paying the rich. Following the annual gathering of
the international financial oligarchy in Davos, Switzerland, Flaherty
said, "We're all agreed internationally that we
need to continue with our economic stimulus.... So we will continue to
provide public-sector demand in the Canadian economy in 2010 and into
the first quarter of 2011."
But wait a minute. Has the leopard stayed out too long
in the rain? February 23, the same finance minister announced spending
cuts will hit nearly all departments of the federal government in the
March 4 budget and Stockwell Day, a notorious former neo-liberal
cabinet minister in Alberta and Alliance
Party leader, has been "tasked with finding ways to significantly cut
federal program spending."
Same old faces, same old anti-social offensive but this
time around the workers' opposition must put its collective foot firmly
down and say, enough already: once is a tragedy, twice a farce. You
guys didn't solve anything before with these anti-social policies.
Cutbacks to social programs and the public
service, increased individual taxation and reduced corporate taxes are
not solutions! Workers and their allies will not allow them to pass!
The people want a pro-social human-centred program that renews the
economy in their favour.
Looking Back
One year has passed since the last federal budget but
the task facing the Canadian people remains the same. At the time,
January 22, 2009, TML wrote: "Canadians need the collective
might of the federal government, economy and country's accumulated
resources to defend
their well-being in this economic crisis. Canadians cannot fend for
themselves in an economy that is socialized in its essence. Canadians
produce and live collectively. We have long ceased to be a pioneer
people engaged in petty production based largely in the countryside and
small settlements. The economic crisis
has been well documented to have emerged from the internal structural
contradictions of the socialized economy and its interconnections with
the U.S. Empire. The crisis is not the fault of any individual. The
people are not responsible for their unemployment or lack of personal
resources to carry them through
unemployment, retirement, illness or injury. Problems stemming from the
crisis have arisen collectively from within the socialized economy and
they must be confronted collectively using the combined resources and
wealth of the country. Investments in social programs must be increased
to meet the challenges of
the economic crisis. Workers cannot be expected to be available to work
when needed by owners of capital and then left to fend for themselves
when they are too old, injured, sick or simply not needed. Resources
must be made available to sustain all those who are unemployed for as
long as necessary. Increased
investments must be poured into public healthcare, education and the
entire gamut of social programs to guarantee the rights of all. No one
should be left without basic needs fulfilled at a Canadian standard.
People have rights by virtue of being human. The federal budget should
uphold those rights and guarantee
them in practice."
Real Solutions Are Found in Renewing the
Economy in Favour
of the People!
Canadians Need and Want a Pro-Social Federal Budget!
Increase Funding for Social Programs! Stop Paying the Rich!
Vale Inco
Hands Off Strikeforce 6500!
Anti-Worker Mercenaries Have No Right of Anonymity --
Condemn Vale Inco's Attempt to
Impose Censorship on Striking Workers
- Dave Starbuck -
Stepping up its campaign to
portray striking Vale Inco
workers as individuals bent on "unlawful thuggery," Vale Inco has
launched a lawsuit against United Steelworkers Local 6500, its
president John Fera and two dozen executive board members and activists
claiming $1 million in damages and a court order
forcing the union to stop posting "all pictures and information
relating to, about or belonging to Vale Inco employees, contractors and
security personnel" on the local's website and the Strikeforce 6500
Facebook page. In addition, Vale Inco wants the court to allow it to
"monitor the contents of all Facebook postings
by the union and its members to ensure compliance with the order." Vale
is also asking the court to order the union to disclose the identity of
an anonymous contributor to those sites who uses the name "John Doe."
The lawsuit alleges the union and its members have
published pictures and other information about anti-worker mercenaries
and, "by doing so, they are arming their members with information,
knowing and intending that it will be used to harass, intimidate,
threaten and commit criminal and tortious
(wrongful) acts against Vale Inco's employees, contractors and security
personnel." Vale claims that individuals whose pictures have been
posted, "have become targets of violence in the community: their
property and homes have been vandalized; they have received anonymous
phone threats at home; they have been
threatened in the community and when crossing the picket lines." The
lawsuit identifies the respondents as belonging to three groups: those
who administer and control the union's website and Facebook pages;
those who post personal information and threats; and those who use the
posted information "to commit criminal
and tortious acts." The company also claims union members have used
information from the websites to "organize a rally outside the Comfort
Inn, the hotel where security personnel are staying." As a result, the
lawsuit states, "Vale Inco has been forced to hire security personnel
to monitor and protect these contractors
and employees' activities and homes, including hiring helicopters to
transport many of these individuals across the picket lines."
Coming
on the eve of the resumption of preliminary negotiations with a
provincial mediator, this lawsuit shows that Vale
Inco has no interest in negotiating a fair deal with its production and
maintenance employees in Sudbury, Port Colborne or Voisey's Bay. It
demonstrates
that the aim of the company is to smash all resistance from the workers
by targeting the leadership and activists to intimidate them from
organizing an effective strike.
Anti-worker mercenaries (scabs in the vernacular) have
no right to anonymity or freedom from ostracism. Anti-worker
mercenaries at Vale Inco are traitors to their class, their community
and their country. The fact that they cannot or will not carry out
their treacherous activity in the light of day shows
clearly that they are in the wrong. In Canada, when someone has a cause
that is just, they will not hide their identity and sneak about. They
will proclaim their cause actively before the whole world. As one Inco
worker aptly describes it: "Something struck me last night as we
watched some videos of past strikes
and listened to speaker after speaker recounting the people involved in
those strikes. There has never been a video or book about the glory and
dignity of being a scab. You meet hundreds of people along the way who
say that they were strikers in this strike or that strike but nobody
ever admits to being a scab. Scabs
hide their face when crossing the picket line or resort to helicopters
to access our workplaces. Why? Because they know it is disgusting and
shameful!"
"Vale might be throwing stones at a wasps' nest on this
one," blogs another worker. "Are they not the ones that have hired AFI
security sitting outside striking members' homes? Are they not the ones
stalking family members of striking workers while they go do groceries
and head out to the mall?
Are they not the ones that are taking pictures of striking workers'
teen daughters when they get off the school bus? Aren't AFI the ones
taking video and pictures, as well as writing down licence plate
numbers of everyday civilians while they go about their daily
business?" Vale is also disregarding municipal bylaws
at will. Day Construction mercenary trucks hauling ore at night have
been the source of many complaints regarding noise infractions but Vale
has determined that the bylaw is either unenforceable or the meagre
fine is the cost of doing business. Similarly, Vale is bunking
mercenaries in administrative buildings contrary
to municipal bylaws so far with impunity.
If taking a photo of someone and publishing it is a
crime, why is it that a few weeks ago a photo of a Toronto Transit
Commission (TTC) employee allegedly sleeping in a ticket booth was
given front page coverage across the country and massive amounts of
anti-worker propaganda accompanied it?
If posting a picture of a person online is a crime then all the major
newspapers and television networks are guilty of invasion of privacy.
Why are they not then sued? If the USW Local 6500 workers are guilty of
crimes worth $1 million, that TTC worker deserves tens or hundreds of
millions in damages!
Vale Inco is seeking to blame the victim. It is Vale
that has insisted on rewriting the terms and conditions of work in the
mines, mill, smelter and refinery by demanding concessions on pension,
bonus and seniority. It is Vale that forced Local 6500 members to
strike or
lose all dignity for themselves and coming
generations, essentially locking out Local 6500. It is Vale that
refuses to accept that labour is the source of added value and that
labour has first claim on the wealth it produces.
Vale's claim that striking workers are violent boils
down to one case in which the purported victim suffered no injuries
requiring medical attention. The case is before the courts but Vale
immediately fired the three accused to intimidate everyone. If, after
nearly eight months of strike necessitated by
the outrageous demands of the company, this is the only incident that
Vale can point to, clearly there is no violence in the strike or in the
community. Indeed, I commend the more than 3,000 striking workers for
the patience shown in refusing to be drawn into provocations by the
company and its agents.
The Strikeforce 6500 Facebook site has become a means by
which Local 6500 members are waging a more effective strike. With more
than 3,000 members, it is an important means of communication amongst
the striking workers, their family and supporters. Information
regarding developments in
the strike, links to articles and commentaries, actions both advertised
and unadvertised, reports from the line, factual response to rumours,
photos, videos and discussions are found on the site. Strikeforce 6500
has built confidence and determination amongst its members. When paid
Vale bloggers sought to undermine
the open spirit of the site, they were exposed and driven off. The
Local 6500 members and the community have built a forum to more
effectively wage their defence struggle against Vale. This is what Vale
hates and seeks to destroy. This is why they seek to monitor the group
and impose censorship. This cannot
be allowed to pass!
Down with Vale's Attempt to Impose
Censorship on Striking Workers!
Hands Off Strikeforce 6500! All for One and One for All!
Sudbury News in Brief
Sudbury City Council Urges Speedy OLRB Hearing
On February 24 the City of Greater Sudbury Council
unanimously requested Mayor John Rodriguez to send a letter on behalf
of council urging the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) to expedite
a hearing into a bad-faith bargaining complaint filed against Vale Inco
by the United Steelworkers. A hearing
in Toronto into the complaint had been scheduled by the board for
February 10 but it was postponed at the last minute until March 30. An
OLRB official said the hearing date was changed to accommodate lawyers
for both sides and that a six-week delay in rescheduling is not out of
the ordinary.
Xstrata Nickel Office, Clerical and Technical Employees
Reach Agreement
Members of USW Local 2020 Unit 6855 representing about
215 office, clerical and technical employees at Xstrata Nickel in
Sudbury have reached a three-year collective agreement with the
company. The employees, members
of Local 2020 of the United Steelworkers, had been scheduled to strike
at 12:01 am Monday, March 1. "Bargaining went to the very end but that
was needed to ensure the new collective agreement met the expectations
of our members," Gerry Loranger, area co-ordinator for the
Steelworkers, said in a release.
The union's bargaining committee unanimously recommended
acceptance of the contract. "I am quite confident that our members will
be satisfied with the terms of the agreement we have reached with the
company," said Marc Ayotte, Local 2020 vice president and Unit 6855
president. Last month,
Xstrata and Mine Mill Local 598/CAW, extended its talks with the
Anglo-Swiss miner five hours past a midnight January 31 deadline
because the sides were making progress toward a no concessions contract
which was reached and later accepted by the members.
Vale, Steelworkers Resume Preliminary Talks March 3
Representatives from Vale Inco and the Steelworkers are
scheduled to meet again March 3 and 4 in their efforts to end the
seven-month strike by more than 3,000 workers in Sudbury and Port
Colborne, Ontario. The two sides met with
arbitrator-mediator Kevin Burkett at a Toronto hotel February 27 and
28. Vale has been demanding concessions in pensions, nickel bonuses and
seniority transfer rights. There have been no formal talks since early
July, but lead negotiator Wayne Fraser, USW District 6 director, and
Vale's Toronto lawyer Harvey
Beresford have had informal discussions in recent weeks at the request
of the company.
Standing Together Striking Back for a Stronger Future
-- An Evening of Music and Stories in Support of United
Steelworkers Local 6500
More than three hundred people attended the "Standing
Together Striking Back for a Stronger Future" benefit for striking Vale
Inco workers at Fraser Auditorium at Laurentian University in Sudbury
on February 27. The evening was organized by faculty in the Centre for
Research in Social Justice
and Policy at Laurentian University.
The evening consisted of a lively combination of song,
music, stories, photos and videos celebrating the resistance of the
Inco workers and the Sudbury community to Vale's assault. The evening
was emceed by Eric Delparte, representing USW 6500 and Jorge Virchez
and Carol Kauppi of the Centre
for Research in Social Justice and Policy. A slide display of hundreds
of photos of the strike opened the evening followed by welcoming
remarks by Rick Bertrand, vice-president of Local 6500. There were
stories in support of Local 6500 from Kari Ann Cusack (Family Support
Group for the Strike), Carolyn Egan
(President of the United Steelworkers Toronto Area Council), Gary
Kinsman (editor of Mine Mill Fights Back), Arja Lane (Wives
Supporting the Strike, 1978-79), Richard Paquin (President of Mine
Mill Local 598/CAW), Dewey Taylor from Ravenswood (Fort RAC), and Peter
Wade (USW Local 6500).
There were musical performances by Stéphane
Paquette, Billy John, Pascal and O.B., Ryan Levecque and the Women of
Steel. Videos including "One Day Longer," a clip from "A Wives' Tale,"
and scenes from the present strike were also shown. Cherie MacDonald,
an activist with the Ontario Secondary
School Teachers' Federation urged participants to donate generously to
support the strike fund. Thousands of dollars were raised, including
one donation of more than $6,000 from OPSEU members.
Calendar of Events
Sudbury Rally
Our Resources Stay Here and Must Be
Utilized in a Manner Beneficial to the Communities
- Mine Mill Locals 598
and 599 -
Thursday,
March 4 -- 9:00-11:00 am
Sudbury Airport
Buses leave from Timmins at 5:00 am and return at 6:00 pm.
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We are calling upon the government of Ontario to ensure
the harvesting, and mining of our natural resources is a benefit to our
communities by maintaining and creating jobs.
On March 4, Mick Davis, CEO of Xstrata PLC, the Minister
of Northern Development and Mines for the government of Ontario,
Michael Gravelle, Trevor Reid CFO Xstrata, Thras Moraitis, Executive
General Manager, Group Strategy, and Corporate Affairs, Xstrata, and
Ian Pearce, CEO, Xstrata
Nickel will be at Nickel Rim South, for a ribbon cutting ceremony.
We are asking for people to show up at the airport for
their arrival, we will have speakers from CAW Local 598, 599 Timmins,
and Local 103 from the Ontario Northland Railway.
There will be a BBQ after the rally at the Falconbridge
Community Center.
Let's Make Our Voices
Heard and Show the Governments That Our Resources,
and Jobs must Stay Here!
Timmins Workers Take "Save
Our Resources" Campaign to Sudbury
The next phase of the "Save Our Resources" campaign
organized by Timmins Xstrata workers will be in Sudbury this Thursday.
Mine Mill Local 599/CAW and MPP Gilles Bisson are calling upon people
to use this opportunity to demand the Ontario Government assist Timmins
in the fight to keep
the Kidd Creek Met Site open. The CAW and the Save Our Resources
Coalition have organized buses to head to Sudbury on Thursday to greet
Mines Minister Michael Gravelle and top Xstrata officials at a mine
opening ceremony (see above).
"We want to show both the government and the company how
important the Xstrata facility in Timmins is to the people of the
region. This is the community's golden opportunity to demonstrate it
face to face," said Bisson.
Buses leave Timmins Square at 5:00 am and will return
around 6:00 pm. There is no charge to get on the bus but officials need
a head count. "Anyone wanting to join the rally should contact Brian
Watson to confirm a seat before Wednesday at 10: 00 am by calling
266-5123," say organizers. Officials
also advise that participants dress appropriately for an outside event.
* Note: A March 3 report in the Sudbury
Star states that Xstrata has cancelled its "celebration" at
the opening of the Nickel Rim South mine, because of the planned
actions of the workers to hold the company to account for its
anti-national anti-social activities. Nonetheless,
the workers confirm that actions to put forward their demands will take
place as planned.
Toronto Rally
Support Steelworker Locals 6500 and 6200 on Strike
at Vale Inco in Sudbury, Port Colborne and Voisey's Bay
- Toronto Area
Steelworkers -
Saturday,
March 6 -- 3:00 pm
Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Front St.
(between John and Simcoe) All welcome.
2:15 pm:
bus leaves Steelworkers' Hall, 25 Cecil St.
2:15 pm:
buses leave Ryerson, 55 Gould Street --
at the end of the
Women's Day March.
4:30 pm till
late: BBQ social for the strikers back at 25 Cecil St.,
after the downtown action is over.
Any questions? Call John Humphrey: 416-727-8583
To download poster click here
(PDF).
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Three years ago, Vale -- a giant multinational
corporation, based
in Brazil but operating worldwide -- was allowed to swallow up Inco.
Now it has forced 4,000 miners and smelter workers in Sudbury, Port
Colborne and Voisey's Bay out on strike. It's demanding huge rollbacks
in pensions, nickel
bonus and seniority rights. Our members have walked the line for 8
months already, no end in sight, with the company refusing to talk.
Having poisoned the social climate in these communities
for years
to come, this arrogant outfit is now sponsoring a conference at
Toronto's Conference Centre, to boast about its allegedly 'wonderful'
efforts to curb pollution.
They've even dared to hold it on International Women's
Day.
How green is our Vale? Not very. How greedy is it?
Beyond words.
We'll send a message to the conference from sister and brother
Steelworkers in Toronto. Stop this vicious attack on working families!
Get back to the bargaining table! Canadians workers want and deserve a
fair contract!
Timmins, Ontario
Reply to Minister of Northern Development
- Ben Lefebvre*, Timmins Times, February
7, 2010 -
Dear Editor,
It has become abundantly clear to anyone that has been
paying attention, that the present Ontario Liberal government simply
doesn't get it!
In his letter to the editor printed in the Timmins
Daily Press on February 4th, Minister of Northern Development,
Mines and Forestry Michael Gravelle confirmed what was suspected all
along. His Liberals care little about preserving good jobs that already
exist in the North.
In fact, it has become increasingly obvious whose side
he really is on and that is clearly not on the side of Northerners.
Make no mistake about it; Minister Gravelle's government
is on the side of big business. His comments come across like we don't
even know how the mining industry works.
Of course we share our mining resources with other
provinces; we have done so for years. We have even smelted material
from Europe and South America at the Kidd Metsite. We have become a
very efficient and profitable custom feed facility over the last decade.
We are not proposing to
stop the flow of material
between provinces as Gravelle suggests, that would be biting off our
noses to spite our own face.
However, we certainly are opposed to Xstrata's intention
to shut down our copper smelter and zinc plant where real wealth is
generated through jobs and taxes so this very profitable multi-national
can make even more money in their plants in Quebec. That's the real
issue Mr. Gravelle.
These are our resources and our livelihoods. Most
Northerners are fed up with being ignored by Queen's Park and many of
us are ready to fight for our heritage, for what we believe in.
The Coalition to Save the Metsite was created as a
result of Xstrata's announcement but the vision of the Coalition goes
far beyond Kidd.
I can't say enough to thank the editorial staff at the Timmins
Daily
Press for the courage they have shown in speaking out in
support of the Coalition's efforts and against the arrogance of the
McGuinty government policies for Northern Ontario.
As Charlie Angus has noted, we are witnessing the
deliberate de- industrialization of Northern Ontario. What Premier
McGuinty apparently wants to do is turn the North into a huge park
where the rich and famous from around the globe can come to watch
woodland caribou roam through our streets
and rare breeds of turtles crawl across our lawns.
Well Mr. Premier, not at the cost of our jobs, not at
the cost of our children's future, not at the cost of Northern Ontario!
Reference
Important Facts about Domestic Processing
and Foreign
Ownership
- Michael Gravelle,
Minister of Northern
Development, Mines and Forestry, Timmins Daily Press, January 29, 2010
-
The job loss that Timmins is facing with the closure of
the Kidd Creek Metallurgical Complex is nothing short of tragic. I
understand well the impact of job losses like these on a community as
virtually all the communities in my riding of Thunder Bay-Superior
North have faced closures and layoffs over the
past few years.
Unfortunately there are no easy solutions. We have been
asked to change the Mining Act to force companies that mine
in Ontario to process their ore here. We are also hearing a lot of
negative talk about foreign companies operating in Ontario. This
certainly brings about some concerns,
which I would like to discuss here.
There is no denying that mining is a global business.
Most Canadian mining companies both mine and process minerals in other
jurisdictions. At the end of 2006, according to Statistics Canada,
Canadian mining companies had $62 billion in direct investment abroad,
while foreign firms had $38 billion
invested in Canada.
In the Mining Association of Canada's (MAC) January 2008
submission to the Competition Policy Review Panel they note that: "it
would be delicate, if not hypocritical, to call for restrictions
limiting foreign investment in Canada when Canadian companies such as
Barrick, Goldcorp, Teck Cominco,
Cameco, Kinross and many others are actively investing and acquiring
assets in foreign countries."
MAC in the same paper also notes that they support in
general "a free and open flow of direct investment -- where the
government's main role is to ensure the fairness and openness of
two-way flows. Foreign investment flows -- inward and outward --
enhance the access of Canadian businesses to new
technologies, to fresh ideas and concepts, and to larger markets and
production chains."
While it may be hard to see it now, we do benefit in
many ways from foreign investment.
It is also important to note that the vast majority of
minerals mined in Ontario are indeed processed here. An example is that
almost 100% of nickel mined in Ontario is smelted here and 85% is
refined here.
Ontario is also the beneficiary of the free movement of
minerals within our country and others. We currently process minerals
mined in Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador,
the U.S. and even Peru, Chile and Australia. In fact, approximately 50%
of the material processed
at Xstrata's Falconbridge Smelter in Sudbury which employs 317 people
comes from other jurisdictions (40% from Quebec, 10% from Newfoundland).
No province in Canada has a law that states minerals
must be processed in that province. Newfoundland has a clause that they
can choose to invoke to force a company to process in the province but
exemptions are available. A common misconception is that all materials
from Voisey's Bay have to
be processed in Newfoundland when in fact some materials come to
Sudbury for processing.
If we close our doors, other jurisdictions will
certainly close theirs to us. If that happened, would it be feasible
for the Xstrata smelter in Sudbury to stay open at only half capacity?
What about Kidd Creek? Twenty-five percent of the ore going to the
copper smelter at Kidd Creek is currently coming
from out of province, and the same goes for the zinc smelter. If we
forced Xstrata to process in the province, and that caused other
jurisdictions to retaliate by not sending their ore here to process,
would it be feasible to keep operating at 75% (or less) capacity in
each smelter? If they couldn't operate the smelter
economically and had to shut it down then where would they send their
copper for processing? Would they just shut the whole mine down?
The situation in Timmins is a terrible one no doubt, but
we need to think not only of today's jobs but the jobs of the future.
We have great potential here in Ontario. We need to continue to make
Ontario a world class place to do business. If we, by law, make it too
difficult for companies to do business
here, then they won't. We can't just trade one set of job losses for
another.
My heart is with all the families that are affected. Be
assured that I will continue to look for ways that we can make
Ontario's mining sector more competitive so that more jobs are created
in our communities.
Read The Marxist-Leninist
Daily
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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