Chamber of Mines News Briefs – September 8 - 10, 2012 [Note: News headlines are hyperlinked to their stories in this document.] Nunavut News ...... 1 Agnico-Eagle, GN’s education department, bring into Kivalliq classrooms ...... 1 NWT News...... 2 Remediation team prepares for environmental assessment ...... 2 Northern aboriginal groups face federal funding cut ...... 2 One last trip home ...... 3 The Murders in the Mine ...... 4 Resource Development and Energy News ...... 10 GN responds to Makita’s questions on Nunavut’s Kiggavik uranium project ...... 10 Six ministers on the shin-dig in Charlottetown ...... 11 Zinc giant submits Izok plan ...... 15 The Last Man Staking ...... 16 China plan boosts miners; TSX at fourth-month high ...... 18 National energy ministers meeting in P.E.I...... 19 Federal-provincial energy ministers to skirt talk of a national strategy ...... 20

NUNAVUT NEWS

Agnico-Eagle, GN’s education department, bring mining into Kivalliq classrooms "To have Agnico step up and understand the connection to education is huge" Nunatsiaq News - September 07, 2012 SAMANTHA DAWSON Students at the Jonah Amitnaaq Secondary School in Baker Lake are back in class. But there’s something new this year for high school students: the program for students in Grade 10 to Grade 12 includes a week of class time during which they’ll learn about trades from workers at Agnico- Eagle Mines Ltd., which owns the Meadowbank gold mine near Baker Lake and the Meliadine gold mine project near Rankin Inlet. The week will also offer students course credits as part of a new joint pilot project between Agnico- Eagle, said Shelly Pepler, the executive director of Kivalliq school operations. In addition to the week-long crash course in trades, two groups of students attending Grade 9 to Grade 11 in other Kivalliq communities will visit the Meadowbank gold mine site or the Meliadine camp for an overnight trip to meet and talk with Agnico-Eagle employees. The program will rotate, so that next year, groups from other communities will participate. All this flows from a memorandum-of-understanding that was signed last April at the Nunavut Mining Symposium in Iqaluit between Agnico-Eagle and the Government of Nunavut’s education department. That agreement sees the company contributing $400,000 a year over three years towards in-school programs. The hope is that these programs will inspire students to prepare for future jobs with Agnico-Eagle. “It takes life and puts it into a classroom,” Pepler said.

Chamber News Briefs 1 “Mining Matters,” a science course used across to teach younger students about mining, is also being tailored to become more Nunavut-specific so there’s more of a focus on rocks and minerals that are found in the territory. The Department of Education also wants to develop ways to reach even younger kids, who could, for example, learn how to fit pipes together. A community career fair is also planned for Baker Lake, to help students understand what careers are available in mining and mining-related fields. “To have Agnico step up and understand the connection to education is huge,” Pepler said. “We see them as vested in these communities.” As the partnership continues to develop, there will be more opportunities for students, Pepler said. “I think we’re off to a good start,” she said.

NWT NEWS

Giant Mine Remediation team prepares for environmental assessment CJCD Radio News – September 7, 2012 , N.W.T. - The Giant Mine Remediation Project is about to enter perhaps the most important phase of its existence. The Mackenzie Valley Review Board will be holding an environmental assessment on the project beginning next week and a full house is expected at the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre. The project's acting manager, Adrian Paradis, said his team has been spending the last couple of weeks getting ready for one of the biggest moments of the process to date. "It's the culmination of five years of work for the team. So it's a major milestone, not only for us, but also for YKDN, the city, and other parties in the environmental assessment, including the Review Board." Topics for the review run the gamut, including freezing and underground reports, water treatment and monitoring and oversight, which will take up the final two days. Paradis said that's because there's a lot of information to go over. "It encompasses all aspects of the overall remediation plan, so it's really wrapping up five years of the E.A." Parties in attendance will include the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, Alternatives North and the North Slave Metis Alliance.

Northern aboriginal groups face federal funding cut Core funding to be cut by at least 10 per cent in 2014 CBC News – September 8, 2012 The Dene Nation found out this week that they, along with every other federally-funded aboriginal organization in Canada, will see funding cuts of at least 10 per cent. Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada announced on Tuesday changes to the funding formula for all national and regional aboriginal representative organizations that will take effect in 2014. Under the new formula, core funding for national organizations will be cut by 10 per cent, while regional organizations face either a 10 per cent cut to their core funding or a ceiling of $500,000. But Dene National Chief Bill Erasmus says legally Canada cannot make the cuts.

Chamber News Briefs 2 “Canada doesn't have the authority to do what they are attempting to do,” he said. “They are proposing to make unilaterally-made decisions. That money is legally there in a treasury board for our purposes and they can’t just say 'Hey, in two years, we will cut you.’ We won’t let that happen.” Other Northern aboriginal organizations including Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Council of Yukon First Nations are also affected. Erasmus said he is speaking with other chiefs across the country about how to address this latest round of cuts.

One last trip home Reunion held at Tungsten Deh Cho Drum – September 5, 2012 Roxanna Thompson As Mike Chemerys drove through a mountain pass and waited for his first glimpse of Mirror Lake and the CanTung Mine beyond that, he knew he was almost home. "The hairs started standing up on the back of my neck in apprehension," he said. Chemerys, who used to live in Fort Simpson but is now in Dawson Creek, B.C., was one of 23 people who participated in a trip titled Going Back Home One Last Time from Aug. 2 to 5. For the participants, home was Tungsten. Located in the NWT approximately 300 km by road northeast of Watson Lake, Yukon, Tungsten was a bustling mining community in the 1970s built around a tungsten deposit and mine. When the mine closed in 1986, however, the residents of Tungsten left as well. Most have never had the opportunity to come back. After hearing that North American Tungsten Corporation Ltd., the current owner of CanTung Mine, was doing reclamation work at the mine, including demolishing many of the old houses and buildings, former residents began thinking about holding a reunion at their former hometown. After the corporation gave permission for the gathering, Chemerys helped organize the event. Twelve former residents were able to make the trip. They brought along their children and in some cases, grandchildren. The group met in Watson Lake and drove in together. The trip was like one big family reunion, said Chemerys. "There were so many stories," he said. Chemerys lived in Tungsten from 1976 to 1981, attending grades 7 to 9 there. Chemerys made the move from Whitehorse with his dad, Norman, who got a job as an above-ground heavy duty mechanic. When the living facilities for families were ready, Chemerys' mom Hilda and his two sisters followed. "It took a special kind of person to live in Tungsten because you were so isolated," he said. Being back and seeing the town again was in many ways bittersweet, said Chemerys. All of the old houses and many of the other buildings have red tape over their doors and signs warning people not to go in for safety reasons. Chemerys wasn't able to see his family's former home, a trailer, because the mine's tailings pond has expanded over top of where it was once located. "We knew full well it wouldn't be like it was when we lived there," he said. The North American Tungsten Corporation Ltd.'s staff did organize tours for the reunion participants but they only involved a quick drive through the town. No one was allowed to go in the old buildings, said Chemerys. Despite not having access to the buildings, the trip was well worth it, said Ingrid Hillgren.

Chamber News Briefs 3 Hillgren, from Whitehorse, attended the reunion with her sister Katherine. Hillgren moved to Tungsten in 1977 and left in 1984. Her dad worked as a surface carpenter at the mine. "I've never lived in a happier place in my life," she said. Hillgren said many of the former residents' happiest memories are of Tungsten and a lot of people still dream about it. Adults made good money at Tungsten and the mine took good care of the families, she said. Hillgren remembers her family coming up with a grocery order every Sunday night and taking it to the company's cookhouse to have it filled. Employees' food and rents were subsidized. "In a lot of ways, life was so good," she said. Hillgren said the reunion gave her and her sister a chance to find closure. Their family left Tungsten because the mine was closing and her dad took a severance package. "My sister and I didn't understand why we had to leave," she said. Since being home, I feel at ease in my life." For Chemerys and Hillgren as well as Ben Dunbar Jr., one of the highlights of the trip was seeing the familiar mountain scenery again. Tungsten is located in a mountain valley. "Feeling the safeness of the mountains, it was comforting to see them again," said Hillgren. Dunbar, his sisters Bev and Andrea, their children and their mother Anne drove all the way from Winnipeg to attend the reunion. "You could just stare out your front window for hours at the mountain," said Ben. Anne was only one of three former employees of the mine to attend the gathering. The other two were John and Margie McConnell. Ben spent his whole childhood at Tungsten, arriving when he was one year old and leaving when the mine closed in 1986 at the age of 14. Ben said when he heard the buildings were being torn down at the mine, he wanted to get some pictures. "It was worth it," he said. Being at Tungsten triggered a lot of memories for the former residents. Coming over the mountain pass into the valley, Ben remembered how it was called Walk-a-thon Pass. Every year, the school held a Terry Fox Run. The students were driven 18 kilometres from the town up the pass and then walked back. The finish line was at the hotsprings past the town where a barbecue would be waiting. While the town is no longer the same, the scenery including Mount Baldie and Dutchman, two large mountains, and the lakes haven't changed, said Ben. He remembers his dad, Ben Dunbar Sr., driving him up the switchbacks on the mountain the mine is in at night. "In the evening when all the lights were on, it was a beautiful scene," he said. Ben, who brought his son on the trip, said he hopes the reunion can become a yearly event. He also has a more wistful dream. "I wish it could be a town again," he said.

The Murders in the Mine Up Here - September 2012 Eighteen months on the picket line. Thirty-eight kilos of explosives. Nine men dead. Twenty years passed. It's the story that made world news and changed a mining town forever. The Giant Mine strike stands as one of the longest and bloodiest in Canadian history, punctuated by one of the worst mass

Chamber News Briefs 4 murders the country has ever seen. For those who lived through September 18, 1992, the scars have never healed. Here are their stories. Katherine Laidlaw. On May 22, 1992, a company called Inc. locked out its workforce at Giant Mine in Yellowknife. The union, the local 4 chapter of the Canadian Association of Smelter and Allied Workers, and management couldn’t reach a settlement. Before the strike, it was a good, if finite, time to be a gold miner. The average worker at Giant was pulling in $77,000 a year, and those clocking overtime were making more than $100,000. But the strike got dirty quickly as rumours swirled of Royal Oak CEO Peggy Witte’s intent to break the union. One thing she did break was an unwritten labour rule in Canada: you don’t bring in replacement workers. No mining company had done that in 45 years. Nevada-born Witte flew them in by helicopter the next day. From there, things got scary. Profane strike posters littered the route along the highway to the mine. An underwear-clad Miss Piggy doll was mounted on a stake, her neck circled by a noose, head dangling and blond curls blowing in the wind. Both sides hurled vulgarities across the gate at the mine entrance. In June, a riot broke out, as RCMP and Pinkerton guards – hired to act as the mine’s security force – clashed with strikers who tore down the mine fence and swarmed the grounds. Nearly 30 people were charged. Two months later, a group of strikers calling themselves the Cambodian Cowboys began to break into the mine, spray-painting anti-scab graffiti on its underground walls, blowing up a satellite dish on the townsite and later using explosives to shut down one of the mine’s ventilation shafts. And then the bomb went off, killing nine men – six line-crossers and three replacement workers – and setting in motion a 13-month-long criminal investigation and 15 years of criminal trials and civil lawsuits. If you lived in Yellowknife in September 1992, you remember where you were when the blast went off. You remember that girl at school saying loudly that she had biked out to the site and witnessed the carnage with her own eyes. You remember the worried creases in your mom’s face as she dialed the same number over and over, trying to get your dad on the line. You remember your classmate’s desk sitting empty that day, knowing he lived out at Giant, being afraid for him. You remember your dad warning you not to go out that night, to stay home and stay safe. If you were one of the 15,000 people who spent that year watching Yellowknife descend into violent, rabid madness, it’s a time you don’t forget. ** Leslie Creed is a Giant Mine baby. For as long as she can remember, her dad worked at the mine. Her folks moved there the year after she was born, 1981, and stayed until the mine closed 18 years later. The Creed family lived in one of the many identical brown duplexes that overlooked the busiest boat launch in town, down the road from the headframe on the shores of Great Slave Lake. Families came and went every few years – moving into their own places in town or leaving Yellowknife entirely. But the Creeds stayed: Leslie’s dad working in the refinery laying gold bricks; her mom sunbathing nude with the other miners’ wives, hidden from the view of the highway. Leslie and her brother and sister were part of the Giant pack, growing up on the rocks outside of town. It was idyllic. “We ran wild. We’d have fires on the rocks. We would use the pipeboxes as our pathways into the mine site,” she says. “It was a community. We always had Christmas parties together. We would all trudge as a little group of kids for Hallowe’en, going from house to house to house, trick-or-treating.” Her first 12 years were blessed with a carefree spirit, like growing up camping, but with electricity, she says. Then, in 1992, the miners went on strike. First, changes came slowly. A picket line was erected at the townsite entrance. After a while, the Giant dwellers weren’t allowed to use the townsite gates anymore, and had to go through the mine itself. The Pinkerton guards came to live on the site for a while, to keep an eye out. Then, things got more serious. The school bus the Giant kids took to school

Chamber News Briefs 5 every day was blocked at the gates by the strikers. “They stopped the bus and they said, ‘we’re getting on,’” Creed says. They walked the aisles, searching the bus for replacement workers or family members coming in and out. The satellite dish next to the Creeds’ house was blown up. Kids at school were bullied or shunned. “It was really weird going to school and seeing kids wear ‘no scab’ buttons on their clothes, in elementary school, junior high. I couldn’t believe that their parents would encourage them to wear those things,” she says. “I remember my teachers asking us how we were doing out there.” The morning of September 18, Leslie was home from school. She was sick with a cold and was waiting for her dad, who was in management at the mine, to drive her into town to the doctor. She felt the vibrations shake the townsite. Just another blast, she thought. The tremors through the kitchen floor were nothing new. But her dad was extra-quiet that morning. And as they wound their way out to the mine entrance, Leslie realized something was seriously wrong. “It was an absolutely crazy amount of people. Military, RCMP, strikers, families, news reporters. That’s when my dad told me what happened. There was an explosion, he said. Some people were killed.” When she got home from the doctor, her parents began packing up her things. They sent Leslie and her siblings to live with family friends in town for three weeks. “I hated being away from home. But at that point, you didn’t know what they were capable of anymore. They blew up our satellite dish, next to my house. They blew up a trolley car with men in it. What’s next?” That year, none of the Giant kids were allowed to trick-or-treat. ** For Jamesie Fournier, it’s the slight flicking sound of playing cards he recalls when he thinks about the strike. It was late at night, when his mom and dad would sit religiously playing cards, that he’d hear about the ugliness at the mine. He was eight, son to wild-haired miner Jim Fournier, also known as Rags. At first, before things got too violent, he and his little brother had spent a lot of time on the line, eating egg-salad sandwiches, sipping ginger ale and feeling like pirates standing on top of a shelled-out school bus brandishing binoculars and keeping a stern eye on things. “You felt like you were on an outpost in the middle of nowhere,” he says. To the young Fournier the battle lines seemed clear – a feisty union versus greedy management, a man’s means versus his principles. He was proud of his dad. He was fighting the oppressors! He was standing up for his community! “It was a really fun time. We enjoyed it,” he says now, a slight, dark-haired 28- year-old with thick black earrings in his ears. But, one day in June, the boys weren’t allowed to go. “I remember the day we were supposed to go. We were all ready and my dad came home at the last minute and said, ‘I don’t think you boys should be coming today.’” The boys argued, the protest signs they’d made lying dejectedly on the floor, but their father in his ragged union cap wouldn’t budge. He knew it wouldn’t be safe – tempers were flaring and that day there’d be a fight. Later that night, Fournier listened from his bedroom to the cards smacking the table as his dad told his mom about the riot-police clubbing their shields that day, about strikers throwing rocks, tear-gas streaming and attack dogs growling. His dad had run onto the mine grounds with the others, dodging gunfire as an officer popped off warning shots. He stopped when he saw a guard collapse in a pond on the site. Picking up a rock, he heaved it into the air, poised to bring it down on the guard lying in the muck. He slammed it to the ground, missing the guard’s head. The flicking of the cards stopped after that, for the three months his dad went to jail. As money got tight, luxuries gradually went away. “My dad told me, ‘Things are going to be changing now James. We’re going to go from one of Yellowknife’s highest paid [families] to not paid at all.” Fournier remembers being given super-soaker waterguns by his friend’s dad because his parents couldn’t buy them. He remembers other families on their block giving his parents food when they cleared out their refrigerators before leaving on vacation. He remembers no-name macaroni-and-

Chamber News Briefs 6 cheese, Cheez Whiz, no longer having cable TV. “When they used to have hot-dog days and pizza days in school, we’d never be able to get that, so we’d always get the pizza crusts from the other kids,” he says. “I really like pizza crusts now.” And yet, Fournier’s memories of growing up on the line are fond ones. His dad coached his sports teams, at least until he couldn’t anymore because he had a criminal record. He got to watch the Toronto Blue Jays win the ’92 World Series in the union hall with his brother and his dad, swiping Oreo cookies from the area that was restricted from kids. After the strike ended, Fournier says, the town quieted. “Things went back to normal for a bit, but you knew it wasn’t going to last. And when the mine started shutting down, you could feel worry that it was going to become a ghost town. And then shortly after that, diamonds were found.” Collective amnesia set in, he says. “I think everyone was wanting to move on.” ** Dale Johnston was running, shoes scraping against the gravel pebbles lining Yellowknife’s streets. It was a phone she was after. Her pounding feet were the only sound ringing through her ears over the noise of the men yelling. She was scared. Usually, she thought she was pretty tough. The daughter of a former union president and a staunch union family, she’d been one of the protestors at the riot that June day, bringing down the fence and swarming the mine site. She’d seen riot cops and tear gas and hurled profanities. She was involved. But tonight felt different. People were dead now. Her dad’s friend was dead; she’d heard it on the radio at home that day. Her dad had warned her not to go out that night, but she figured going to see a movie couldn’t hurt. Then the brawl broke out. She recognized the union guy getting beaten outside the bar by a group of men, shouting accusations, unleashing their pent-up frustration. She heard the clattering of glass and went for the closest payphone she could remember, a couple of blocks away. “Stay low,” the man at the union hall told her when she called. “Just stay low. Don’t be out and about.” You didn’t know who could be hiding around the corner, beer bottle in hand. Everyone was feeling like a fight that night. Today, Johnston is 35 years old, the mother of three young boys. She moved away from Yellowknife and so did her dad, both living in Grand Prairie, Alberta. But no matter what, or where, or who, every time she sees a picket line, she stops, circles the block to the nearest doughnut shop and parks her car. She never passes strikers, she says, without stopping to buy them coffee. She’s a union girl. ** The Giant Mine murders have brought Katie O’Neil to a little trailer on a Vancouver Island reserve. There, the 22-year-old, freshly home from two years in Australia, sits with her father, Jim, once a miner at Giant. He sits in a lazy-boy recliner and she sits in a desk chair, facing a computer screen, a journal open on her lap. They write. Katie’s story is different than the others. She was just two when the bomb went off. A memory she can barely recall has engulfed her whole life. She doesn’t remember the day her dad came home, rendered unable to speak for hours from the shock after he was one of the first to reach the blast scene. He looked desperately for his best friend, Chris Neill, and the eight other miners, but all that remained of them was flesh and bone blown into the mine walls. Katie remembers things in snapshots. “Sometimes pictures will bring back a memory. I saw a picture a while ago of the graffiti on the front of my house,” she says, referring to the word “SCAB” vandals painted across her garage when her dad crossed the picket line. “And I remember sitting on the ground with a paintbrush in my hand and Chris Neill painting the front of our house because he was sick of looking at the graffiti.” Another time, she says, she remembered dumping her crayons all over the floor.

Chamber News Briefs 7 “I didn’t do it, the strikers did it!” she explained to her mom. “I thought the strikers were boogey-men.” The strike, for Katie, had become mythical. She knew what “striker” and “scab” meant by the time she was three years old. Ten years ago, Jim O’Neil moved to a First Nations reserve on Vancouver Island. He’s an RV repairman now – he stopped mining underground after the explosion. He tried to go back to work but the thought of the man-car shards in the tunnel walls underground – there’s only so much a man can take. He’s spent the past 20 years trying to reason away what he saw that day after the blast. “It’s been a very, very lonely battle,” he says. He left Yellowknife, seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder in Edmonton. After five years of therapy and little improvement, he went to work on a cattle ranch in Sherwood Park, Alberta. He and Katie’s mother got divorced. He put wads of money into doctors and treatments. He has exaggerated startle response – a PTSD symptom that causes his body to jerk and shake violently when triggered – something he’ll live with for the rest of his life. He has nightmares when he hears the word “union.” He’s still looking for answers, finding holes in the RCMP’s evidence against Roger Warren, the man jailed for setting the bomb. He thinks Warren took the rap for something he didn’t do alone. “I’ve always thought that other people certainly knew what was going on,” he says. Now that the lawsuits are complete, now that the RCMP have disposed of the evidence, Katie and Jim spend days and nights – sometimes from “dusk until dawn” – poring over journals from that time, writing them into a book. When they finish, they’d like the book to be published. Catharsis, he hopes. “If I could truly say, yes, I know what happened to my friend Chris Neill and the other eight guys in Giant Mine, maybe then I could do something else without the interference of PTSD,” Jim says. “Somehow, someday, there will be closure. There’s got to be some better closure than I have right now.” For now, father and daughter sit in their chairs, listening to the beating of the drums in the longhouse, and drift away. ** Yellowknife is a resilient, transient town and 20 years is a long time. Still, the strike lingers, in the faded union graffiti downtown, the former strikers and police officers who ignore each other at the grocery store, the friendships damaged irreparably. Al Shearing, the prime suspect in the police’s case for a long time, still lives in town, scavenging at the dump in his pickup and working construction. He spent two- and-half years in jail for sneaking into the mine, painting anti-scab graffiti and blowing up a ventilation shaft. “I felt justified. I think I should have done more,” he told the CBC in a 2003 interview. “They tried for 13 months and couldn’t prove anything.” Helen Warren, Roger Warren’s wife, still lives in Yellowknife too, working for the government. (In a strange twist, Warren and Shearing are now related – Shearing married Kathy Hrynczuk, Helen’s sister, 10 years after the bombing.) Warren himself is jailed in Mission, B.C., at Ferndale Institution, a minimum-security prison. He’s eligible for parole in 2015. Speaking about the strike while answering to charges in court, striker Tim Bettger, the police’s second suspect in their investigation, said: “None of the rules of the world seemed to apply any longer. For what it’s worth, I want to apologize to my family.” In his case, at least, the ending of William Golding’s classic novel Lord of the Flies comes to mind: The boys disperse, stunned and appalled by the mob mentality that drove them to brutal violence. Ten years ago, one of the murdered miners’ sons, Joe Pandev, told the local paper: “I want people to remember what happened and to be embarrassed by it. The way people acted, it was just embarrassing for a community to turn on itself like that. And over what?” Not long after the strike, Royal Oak went bankrupt and walked away from Giant, saddling taxpayers with a $500-million cleanup bill. Above ground, the site is a mix of rickety wooden structures and sci-fi steel spires that shoot up from the rock. Below ground, a quarter-million tons of deadly arsenic fester in vast chambers. The government says in another decade, by the 30th anniversary of the murders,

Chamber News Briefs 8 remediation will be complete. The mine will be clean, at least on the surface. But the waste underground, they say, will have to be monitored “in perpetuity.” Deep down, things won’t go away. Editor’s note: More than 10 strikers were approached to be interviewed for this story, including Roger Warren. All of them declined. **** At Giant Mine, a 20-year-long disaster The murders took an instant. But the tremors of the tragedy have echoed for decades. 1990 Royal Oak Mines is founded by Margaret “Peggy” Witte and, on November 2, acquires Yellowknife’s Giant Mine from Pamour Inc. May 22, 1992 Royal Oak locks out members of the Canadian Association of Smelter and Allied Workers; at midnight they go on strike. The company helicopters in strikebreakers and Pinkerton security agents. May 26, 1992 Yellowknife RCMP react to threats of violence by bringing in extra officers, including a riot squad, from Alberta. June 11, 1992 Strikers, police, and Pinkerton guards clash outside the mine’s main gate. Nearly 30 people are arrested. September 1, 1992 An explosion damages the mine’s ventilation shaft. For that crime, and for painting anti-scab graffiti in the mine, strikers Al Shearing and Tim Bettger are eventually sentenced to prison. September 18, 1992 At 8:45 a.m., a man-car passing through a tunnel 230 metres underground trips a bomb, instantly killing Vern Fullowka, Norm Hourie, Chris Neill, Joe Pandev, Shane Riggs, Robert Rowsell, Arnold Russell, Malcolm Sawler and Dave Vodnoski. September 20, 1992 Police declare the bombing a homicide and begin a 13-month investigation involving informants, polygraph tests and tapped phones. The initial suspects are Al Shearing and Tim Bettger, who’d committed the earlier bombings at Giant. October 15, 1993 After a six-hour-long interrogation, Roger Warren confesses to RCMP that he set the bomb. Later that night he leads investigators to the site, divulging details, police say, that only the killer could have known. December 1993 After 18 months, the Giant Mine strike ends and strikers return to work. November 1994 Warren’s case goes to court. He recants his confession, saying he confessed because he was clinically depressed and wanted to speed the end of the strike. January 1995 Warren is convicted of nine counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 20 years. He’s sent to the Stony Mountain penitentiary in Manitoba. April 1999 Royal Oak, unable to recover from the strike and low gold prices, goes bankrupt. The mine is transferred to the federal department of Indian and Northern Affairs, saddling taxpayers with a $500- million cleanup. 2002 The legal group Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted launches an investigation into whether Warren is innocent and should be retried. January 2003 Warren again confesses to the murders, saying he acted alone. Shortly thereafter, the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted drops his case. July 2004 During testimony at a lawsuit filed by eight widows and 23 children of the victims, Warren blames poor security, his union and Royal Oak for creating the circumstances that led to his crime.

Chamber News Briefs 9 December 2004 The NWT Supreme Court rules the territorial government, the Pinkertons and the union were, along with Warren, responsible for the miners’ deaths. Their families are awarded $10.7 million in dmages. May 2008 The NWT Court of Appeal overturns the 2004 decision, triggering an appeal to the . February 2010 The Supreme Court dismisses the 2008 appeal, finding that the Pinkertons and the government didn’t breach their duty of care to the replacement workers. 2015 Roger Warren, now housed in minimum-security Ferndale Institute in Mission, B.C., will become eligible for parole.

RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND ENERGY NEWS

GN responds to Makita’s questions on Nunavut’s Kiggavik uranium project Public vote issue “outside the scope of an environmental impact assessment for the Kiggavik project” Nunatsiaq News - September 07, 2012 DAVID MURPHY The Government of Nunavut has responded to an information request from anti-uranium group Nunavummiut Makitagunarningit regarding Areva Resources Canada’s proposed Kiggavik uranium mine, located 80 kilometres west of Baker Lake. In its information request, Makita said “Nunavummiut will obviously not be the major beneficiaries of the Kiggavik proposal,” and asked if that conflicts with the GN’s policy on uranium mining in Nunavut. The GN expressed conditional support for uranium mining in the last sitting of the legislative assembly in June in a statement of five main principles. The GN defended Nunavut’s mining sector in its response to Makita, saying more resource development will benefit Nunavut and the rest of Canada economically. “Nunavut’s mining sector represents a quarter of the territory’s economy,” the GN said. “In both 2010 and 2011 Nunavut’s economic growth was the highest in Canada.” The GN’s response also states that Nunavut is the fourth best jurisdiction in Canada for mineral exploration investment, which “illustrates the importance of mining in Nunavut and the national economy.” “Mining in Nunavut is also important to Nunavut itself; if even a small number of exploration projects go on to be developed as mines, they will represent a tremendous opportunity for employment and economic development for the territory,” the response said. The GN also said some of Makita’s information requests are “outside the scope of an environmental impact assessment for the Kiggavik project.” The questions Makita posed to the GN in the information request include the following: • Why was a public vote not held before adopting pro-uranium mining policies? • If Inuit in Baker Lake vote “no” to the proposed Kiggavik mine, will the institutions addressed revise their policies regarding uranium mining accordingly? • Has the GN researched which countries’ nuclear programs uranium from Nunavut may be used in? Did this include research into how “environmentally responsible” the nuclear programs in each potential receiving country are?

Chamber News Briefs 10 To these, the GN referred Makita to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission’s and a 2011 report called What was said about Uranium in Nunavut. In the report, the GN list what the 107 participating members said during public forums on the uranium issue in Baker Lake and Cambridge Bay. The Nunavut Planning Commission also responded to the question of a public vote in Nunavut on uranium. The commissition said if the Kivalliq Inuit Association, the Hamlet of Baker Lake, and three or more hamlets representing the affected area passed a motion in support of uranium mining, then they would be “satisfied.” “How these approvals are coordinated; by industry, government or KIA is up to the hamlets,” the NPC’s response said. The Kiggavik project would extract uranium ore from four open pits and one underground mine. Areva estimates its capital cost at $2.1 billion and says up to 750 jobs would be created in the construction phase, and up to 1,300 direct and indirect jobs during production.

Six ministers on the shin-dig in Charlottetown IPolitics – September 8, 2012 James Munson Canada’s energy and mining ministers will gather in Charlottetown on Monday and Tuesday to share thoughts on policy and hopefully find common ground on how to develop the country’s resources. Following on last year’s meeting in Kananaskis, Alberta, the ministers have plenty to talk about this time around. Ottawa pushed through major reforms of the federal environment assessment process in the spring and several premiers have squabbled over the prospects of a national energy strategy over the summer. Over the past week, iPolitics tried to get a hold of every province and territory to find out each jurisdiction’s priorities. The ministers from Yukon, , Alberta, Prince Edward Island, Nunavut and Newfoundland and Labrador were unavailable for various reasons. Federal Natural Resources Joe Oliver wasn’t available either. Quebec’s new Parti Québécois government still hasn’t appointed a cabinet. As for the ministers who did have time to chat, here’s what they plan to talk about when they fly into Charlottetown this week. For Nova Scotia Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Charlie Parker, the annual meeting offers a chance to have a tête-à-tête with his federal counterpart Joe Oliver, who led a massive and contentious overhaul of the federal environmental assessment regime for industrial projects in the most recent federal budget. “I’d like to get some information on that,” said Parker. “There’s going to be some new regulations at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and I’m interested in getting some clarity.” The proposed Donkin coal project in Cape Breton, now passing through the regulatory process, will likely be impacted by the changes and Nova Scotia wants to know how, he said. The Atlantic region is a step ahead of the country in terms of co-ordinating energy policy, with plans to announce the results of studies that looked into the viability of an Atlantic Energy Strategy at the meeting’s outset on Monday. “There’s been discussion of a common energy regulator in the Maritime provinces,” said Parker. “There may be some cost savings.”

Chamber News Briefs 11 Nova Scotia recently announced a deal to buy power from the Muskrat Falls hydro power facility in Labrador – an example of province-to-province co-operation that should be emulated, he said. That deal is helping Nova Scotia meet its greenhouse gas emission target by allowing it to move off of coal power. “(A national energy strategy) is a combination of working with our partners to use our current resources responsibly but moving towards more renewable resources as well,” said Parker. But don’t expect more than backroom talk on a national energy strategy from this meeting, said Dave Chomiak, Manitoba’s minister for innovation, energy and mines. “That file has moved up to the premiers and the Council of the Federation is working on that,” said Chomiak. The discussion in Charlottetown will likely give the provincial and territorial governments a chance to update themselves on the strategy’s progress ahead of more significant announcements at next summer’s Council of the Federation meeting among the premiers, he said. The main aim of a strategy should be to find commonalities among the provinces and territories – not resolve major policy differences — particularly around exactly how green energy production in Canada should eventually become, he said. “A grand bargain is probably too strong a statement but some mutual agreements and some opportunities would certainly move the agenda forward,” said Chomiak. However ambitious a strategy emerges, Manitoba has a big stake in getting its Canadian neighbors to consume more green power. Manitoba has signed a memorandum of understanding with Saskatchewan and is in talks with Alberta and Ontario to increase electrical transmission east and west of the province in light of two major hydro projects that will come online in the mid-term. The combined 1900 megawatts to come out of those two power plants will mostly go to the United States, said Chomiak, but there will be surplus. “There’s no real east-west connection,” said Chomiak, referring to electrical grids. “There ought to be some movement that way.” Another province focused on building better energy transportation is land-locked Saskatchewan, where oil and uranium deposits have provided the backbone of an economic revival in recent years, said Tim McMillan, Saskatchewan’s minister for energy and resources. McMillan thinks there should be serious talk of developing more pipeline infrastructure going east-west, but that’s not all he has in mind. “Two years ago almost none of our oil was shipped by rail,” said McMillan. “Today, 10 per cent of our oil production is going out of the province in rail cars.” Production from the Bakken oil field, which has also fueled an oil boom south of the border, is around 69,000 barrels day. That oil should be sent east, said McMillan. “I think most Canadians would believe that to be positive,” he said. Like Nova Scotia’s Charlie Parker, McMillan wants to get more details from federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver on the recent regulatory overhaul in this year’s budget. “We think ‘one project, one review’ is a great initiative,” said McMillan, referring to one of the terms Oliver has used to describe the overhaul, which in large measure means Ottawa is pulling out of environmental assessments for industrial projects and allowing the provinces to take over.

Chamber News Briefs 12 “But as the regulations come out, if it’s a fairly arduous process and if we haven’t achieved the gains that were set out, then we’ll have problems with that,” he said. “We believe in ‘one project, one review,’ but let’s ensure that we are getting what we’re hoping for.” While Saskatchewan may be pushing to send its crude east, Ontario is still wondering if that would be a good idea, said its Energy Minister Chris Bentley. “We’re watching,” said Bentley. “We’re listening for what the options are and what the opportunities are.” “I’d like to see the discussion develop and evolve a little further until reflexive decisions up or down are made on certain initiatives,” he said. Ontario has staked its reputation on manufacturing green technology and running its electrical grid on renewable power. It’s building a third tunnel at its Niagara Falls power plant to increase the capacity of its turbines from 40 per cent to around 70 per cent, said Bentley. The province has also made moves to boost its nuclear production. And despite Bentley’s ambivalence towards increasing the province’s dependence on fossil fuels, he said a national energy strategy should allow for each region to play up its strengths, a tacit recognition that provinces with different stances on going green can share the same house. “I see different focuses as a great strength,” said Bentley. “Ontario has its strengths and focuses that we’ve had for nine years. Other provinces have had their owns strengths.” Recognizing the interdependence of the country’s myriad energy sources should be a key component of a national strategy, he said. Bentley won’t be making it to the Charlottetown meeting due to a crucial vote in Queen’s Park to take place early next week over the province’s teacher crisis. Neither will his colleague Rick Bartolucci, Ontario’s minister of northern development and mines. But both will be represented by their deputies at the meeting. Bartolucci wasn’t available for an interview for this story, but his spokesperson Andrew Morrison said the deputy minister will provide the other provinces and territories with an update on Ontario’s progress toward developing the Ring of Fire mineral deposit and how it plans to work alongside Aboriginals in the region. The lone territory to respond to an interview request is the , which has seen a dearth of investment in the mineral sector compared to its neighbours Yukon and Nunavut in recent years. “We’ve had producing diamond mines but we haven’t opened a mine other than a diamond mine in the past 15 years,” said Dave Ramsay, the Northwest Territories’ minister of industry, tourism and innovation. The territory is currently writing a mineral development strategy to help prod the industry along, said Ramsay. Canadian Zinc’s Prairie Creek project, currently going through the regulatory process, is the closest mine to production, he said, and there are about a half dozen mines in the advanced exploration stage of development. But it could be energy resources that really get the Northwest Territories’ economy rolling. A shale oil deposit in the territory’s south is bringing a lot of work and exploration in the region around Norman Wells, said Ramsay.

Chamber News Briefs 13 Thirteen exploration leases have been issued in the last year to oil companies, with work commitments reaching $630 million, he said. ConocoPhillips, MGM Energy Corp. and Imperial Oil are all exploring the deposit. “It’s early days in this development,” said Ramsay. “But many experts seem to think we’re sitting on billions of barrels of oil.” The discovery could be crucial as the territory grapples with energy shortages. The natural gas field that fuels Inuvik may run out of fuel in the next few months and the territorial government is currently in talks with the municipality on a solution, said Ramsay, who added that propane may be the short-term solution. Norman Wells, in the heart of the massive shale oil play that still being explored mentioned above, is fuelled by a conventional crude deposit could run dry within a year. The territory is still studying the problem and hasn’t gone to Ottawa for help yet, said Ramsay. “Once we come up with a game plan to find out what the solution is, then you can ask for help,” he said. Back on the East Coast, New Brunswick is hankering to get a piece of whatever action comes out of a national energy strategy. The recent controversies over Alberta oil heading to Asian markets through British Columbia and to the U.S. Gulf Coast should get policy-makers thinking about an east-west oil pipeline, said Craig Leonard, New Brunswick’s energy minister. “We want to make sure people know that there’s a third and very viable option out there and that’s the eastern option,” said Leonard. He’d like to see a pipeline take Alberta petroleum all the way to Saint John where the Irving refinery currently processes crude from overseas. Such a move won’t likely happen for a long time. A closer-term item for provincial co-operation in the Atlantic region will likely be its electrical infrastructure. Leonard, who will unveil the results of studies launched under the guise of an effort called an Atlantic Energy Strategy on Monday, made the strategy sound ambitious. “Rather than four provinces and four utilities working completely independently of one another, what is the potential for us to be sharing the grid more efficiently?” said Leonard. “It should be a regional issue,” he said. New Brunswick’s previous Liberal government suffered a major setback in regional co-operation when it tried to set up a partnership with Quebec Hydro that became deeply unpopular with voters. Leonard said the Progressive Conservatives didn’t pivot eastward because of that boondoggle and working with the Quebec utility is not out of the question. “We’ve put that behind us and we’re trying to play as much has a role as we can in the regional market but also nationally,” said Leonard. New Brunswick has also undergone a contentious debate over fracking and petroleum exploration in the province, but that file is handled by Leonard’s cabinet colleague Bruce Northrup because Leonard’s sister works for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. Northrup was not available for an interview.

Chamber News Briefs 14 Zinc giant submits Izok plan MMG Ltd. proposing two base metal mines, which would include port and longest all-weather road in Nunavut Nunavut News/North – September 10, 2012 Thandiwe Vela International zinc producer MMG Ltd. is forging ahead with plans to build two base metal mines in Nunavut at its Izok Corridor project. The company announced last week that its proposal for the zinc-copper Izok Corridor project, located within the Kitikmeot region, has been submitted to the Nunavut Impact Review Board. MMG hopes to have production started at the Izok Corridor project -- comprised of the Izok and High Lake deposits -- started by late 2018 since global production of zinc is forecast to decline in coming years. "We're very optimistic about this project and very excited about it," said Sahba Safavi, MMG project manager for Canada. "Again this is an important project for MMG because its objective is to ensure that we stay as a major producer of zinc in a global market, as we see the future of zinc as a declining resource, globally speaking." MMG currently has five global mining operations including its Century Mine in Australia, known as the third-largest zinc producer in the world. Century, which produces 500,000 tonnes annually, is among the major zinc operations reaching the end of their mine lives in the coming years, and the Izok Corridor is part of MMG's efforts to keep its zinc production levels high, Safavi said. The Izok Lake exploration camp and facilities are located about 280 km northwest of Kugluktuk, about 10 km west of the Izok deposit. Izok would be the main ore body resource for the corridor, where a milling facility concentrator is also proposed to be located. According to the plan submitted to the environmental review board, concentrate produced at Izok will be put on trucks and will travel on a 350 km all-weather road as part of the project to a port facility. Infrastructure demands for the project are currently being funded by the company. "I think it's important to note that we're very much committed and responsible to sustainable development and our focus is heavy on the environment and also on relations with the communities," Safavi said. "So we are making a significant effort to make sure that we are communicating with the communities, consulting. "This project will bring economical benefits to Nunavut, will create employment and we look forward to creating those opportunities for the North." Tom Hoefer, executive director of the NWT and Nunavut Chamber of Mines, called the project description "exciting," comparing it to the NWT diamond mines in terms of scope, jobs and spending potential. He added that the news is especially good for the Kitikmeot region after Newmont Mining Corp. announced a halt to development of its Hope Bay gold project in the region earlier this year. "Hope Bay was a sad bit of information there when they put it on care and maintenance and a lot of opportunity was lost," Hoefer said. "So this should create a lot of hope and opportunity for people in the region."

Chamber News Briefs 15 Lack of infrastructure in the North has deterred companies from developing projects such as the Izok Corridor in the past, Hoefer added, but rising commodity prices are increasingly attracting major resource companies back to attractive deposits in remote areas like Nunavut and the NWT. An Izok Corridor pre-feasibility study was completed last year, and a feasibility study is currently underway. The budget for the feasibility study is $50 million. Last month, MMG official changed its name to MMG Ltd., from Minmetals Resources, which is the name of the Chinese corporation that holds majority shares of MMG. MMG is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The Last Man Staking Up Here Business – August 2012 Ted Anderson During his four decades working on northern rock as a geologist and consultant, Lou Covello has become an outspoken advocate for the mining and exploration industry. He’s written columns and spoken before the Senate. He’s seen mining and exploration in the North change, and not always for the better. While things are looking up for the Yukon and Nunavut, it’s no secret the industry has stagnated in the Northwest Territories. Speaking to the Senate’s standing committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development in 2009, Covello said mining companies have become “political footballs” for land claims negotiations between aboriginal, federal and territorial governments. Speaking with Up Here Business, he says the territory is at a point where it might take more than 10 years to catch up to our sister territories – once development finally kicks into gear. “When you hear someone on the radio say we should leave it in the ground because it’ll be worth more in the future, it’s not true. The odds are it’ll be worth less,” Covello says over Monday morning breakfast at a Yellowknife diner. “You can see that with natural gas. Because of human intellectual capital being expended on the problem – natural gas – we have more now than we ever have in the past. As a matter of fact, we have so much that the price of natural gas is at an all-time historic low and looks like it’s going to stay that way for the foreseeable future, and that’s why we don’t have a Mackenzie Valley pipeline – because we said, ‘Well, let’s leave this because it’ll only be more in the future,’ And in fact the exact opposite was true.” Covello anything-but-cynical take on big industry, and his views on non-renewable resource development, cut decidedly against the grain: He calls the Alberta oil sands a “natural oil spill” that has been leaking into the Athabasca River since the end of the Ice Age. Now, he says, “we’re cleaning it up” and making the money we need to fund environmental stewardship. “I believe that for human practical purposes, our so-called non-renewable resources are in fact infinite and only limited by the crust of the earth, and the main limitations on finding ne deposits are human, and that’s the amount of resources – time and resources – and intellectual capital that we spend on the problem.” At 67, Covello spends his downtime skiing and getting out on the lakes around Yellowknife – not fishing necessarily, just enjoying the natural environment he calls home. But work is where his true passion lies. He focuses on getting out into the bush and on the tundra – he’s field-oriented, he says. “Who wouldn’t want to be out there? It’s out in a pristine environment, you get to solve problems, you get to think about rocks, figure out what rocks are doing, realize that you never really know the whole truth.” Covello graduated from Thunder Bay’s Lakehead University with a Bachelor of Science in 1971. He came North first for Noranda Inc, then for two years with the Geological Survey of Canada. Covello returned to Noranda in 1973 and they offered him a transfer to Yellowknife or Winnipeg. The choice for Covello was a no-brainer. “There was no way I wanted to live in Winnipeg,” he says.

Chamber News Briefs 16 Gary Vivian first met Covello in 1977 when the two worked for Noranda. Covello left the company in 1981 for his own consulting business. But in 1988, Covello recruited Vivian to work for Covello, Bryan and Associates, a firm Covello started in 1986 with partner Douglas Bryan. That company became Aurora Geosciences in 2000, merging with Whitehorse’s Amerok Geophysics, and for the past eight years Vivian has been the company’s president. With a passion for fieldwork “second to none,” Covello has been tireless and level-headed out on the rocks, Vivian says. Not to mention something of a workaholic. Covello’s passion is sometimes so boundless that the geologists he brings with him are essentially hijacked into taking longer trips than what they signed up for. It’s an experience common enough that there’s a known saying in the northern industry to describe it: “I’ve been Lou’d.” “If you do something for somebody and you’ve been misled down the garden path, they say you’ve been ‘screwed,’” says Vivian. “Well with Lou, it’s always one of those things where, as a supervisor, he’ll tell you or tell your wife that you’re going into the field for two or three weeks, but Lou actually knows it’ll be six weeks. When you come back, the famous line you use to always tell your wife was you’ve been Lou’d.” Continues Vivian: “The man just has so much knowledge and so much passion for geology that it doesn’t matter if you end up getting Lou’d for a job. Everything always works out well. You know he’s always got your back.” Rushed jobs end often in disaster, so for Covello, taking it slow now and then is more a blessing than a curse. “Commonly in the field you can get highly stressful situations where you may have helicopter problems or fixed-wing problems,” says Vivian, “but Lou always takes those things with a grain of salt – he never lets them bother him and he always makes the right decisions. He never makes a rushed decision to potentially make the wrong one. He’s always had his emotions under control extremely, extremely well.” Working on the land has lost a lot of its romanticism. Modern camps boasts many of the amenities of home – satellite TV, Internet, running water – but 30 years ago, says Vivian, “you’re there by yourself, there’s not much support, and, you know, it’s a great place to be.” The freedom of the North in the 1970s and 80s, along with its inherent mystique as a huge chunk of unexplored Canadian Shield, brought miners and geologists north. While much of the land remains to be explore for minerals, the lifestyle is much different than it was back when the population was few and the few were hardy. “If you wanted to wash, you went and jumped in the lakes,” says Vivian. “You cooked your own meals, you didn’t have a first aid person, and to be quite honest the camps in those days were a lot more fun than they are now, because at night you used to sit around the kitchen table and you just talked about life, whereas now everyone just goes and watches TV or they play on their laptops.” There’s still a lot of mystery as to what’s buried out there. That fact keeps some of the romanticism alive, but mystery doesn’t pay the bills. Exploration spending intentions for the territory are estimated at $124 million this year, up from $105 million last year but far below the $568 million spending expected in Nunavut. “We have this anti-development attitude in the North, the Northwest Territories in particular,” says Covello. “We’re largely a civil service-oriented entity now; a political entity. Mining is probably one of the few viable economic activities that we have, at this point anyway, and it’s perceived almost universally as a very dirty and very destructive occupation, and I think until we revise those attitudes we’ll find we continue along this path.” It’s an attitude that doesn’t jive with logic, in his mind. Without money, how can we afford to be the stewards of our environment? “If you look at the history of human activity on earth, the more industrially advanced, and the richer a nation is, the better it is able to look after its natural resources, its environment.” Working in Russia, he’s seen what happens when a poor nation is mining because it

Chamber News Briefs 17 really, really needs the money. “Things that, here, would appall us in terms of environmental degradation are commonplace there. If you don’t have money, you’re concerned more with survival, and environment takes a backseat to survival.” To fix the mentality in the NWT, the education system should not only shift misconceptions about industry but get youth excited about it, Covello says. Yellowknife’s Sir John Franklin High School used to offer a geology course in the 1960s, but Covello doesn’t see that happening nowadays, despite it seemingly being a natural fit in the North. “I think there is a certain amount of reluctance to teaching it as well because of its affiliation with industrial activity,” he says. As a result, it’s the territory’s young who are missing out on opportunities. “There are a lot of people who are interested here but most of the expertise when it comes to the actual practical aspects of exploring comes from down south.” Covello is starting to see the mentality shift, at least within the GNWT. Devolution will be a big boost for the territory. He speaks of responsible development, which could bring prosperity to the territory, if we’d let it. “Some people think that the royalties are going to be a big thing, but the royalties never are – the big benefits are going to be in the jobs, and people paying taxes and getting off the social support end of things.” As he finishes off his breakfast, Covello notes the ground under our feet, the rock Yellowknife is built upon. It’s some of the oldest in the world, dating back to the Archean Era, some 2.6 billion years ago. “They form the cores on all of the continents, these old stable platforms,” he says. This old stone contains immense wealth, the full scope of which we are only just beginning to discover. Those treasures will support the people in the communities of the NWT long after we’re gone, and, if we’re lucky, while most of us are still here.

China plan boosts miners; TSX at fourth-month high Reuters – September 7, 2012 Alastair Sharp TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian stocks surged to their highest since early May on Friday as grim U.S. jobs data fueled hopes for quick action from the Federal Reserve and China's multibillion-dollar spending plans jolted mining companies higher. Bullion raced to a six-month high, helping major gold miners, as U.S. jobs growth slowed, setting the stage for the Federal Reserve to pump additional money into the economy of Canada's main trading partner as early as next week. But base metal miners dwarfed those gains as Beijing signed off on $157 billion of projects to build highways, ports and airport runways, showing a proactive tilt as it looks to energize an economy mired in its worst slowdown in three years. "It's amazing what a few hundred billion will do for you," said John Hughes, a senior mining analyst at Desjardins Securities. Teck Resources Ltd (TCKb.TO: Quote), a diversified miner which makes much of its revenue from coal used in industrial production, jumped 9.2 percent to C$29.51, leading an 8 percent charge in the overall base metals group. Prices for gold, oil, copper and other metals all jumped sharply, giving the cluster of Toronto-listed companies that sell these commodities a major boost. "They're all up on the back of the view that China is not slowing, or more importantly, will not be slowing in the future," Hughes said, pointing out that the detailed spending plans were approved by a new cadre of Communist Party leaders.

Chamber News Briefs 18 Investors also cheered signs the Federal Reserve would follow the European Central Bank in embarking on fresh monetary easing to help kickstart growth, after payroll data showed fewer jobs were created than anticipated. "The jobs numbers out of the U.S. today further provides reason for QE3, which would be positive for gold," said Philip Petursson, director of the portfolio advisory group at Manulife Asset Management, referring to a third round of bond-buying known as quantitative easing. STRONG GAIN FOR WEEK Overall, the Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE gained 128.28 points, or 1.06 percent, to close at 12,268.01, its highest closing level since May 1. The move added to a sharp jump on Thursday after the ECB unveiled its plan to bring down the borrowing costs of struggling euro zone countries and gave the index a 2.67 percent gain for the week. The world's largest gold miner, Barrick Gold (ABX.TO: Quote) helped carry the index higher, rising 2.6 percent to C$39.27, while energy companies also gained. Canadian Natural Resources Inc (CNQ.TO: Quote) was the single biggest positive factor, adding 4.8 percent to C$31.54. Crude, copper and other commodities moved higher, and the combination of news out of Europe, the United States and China suggested further rises in the Toronto index, which has underperformed world markets this year, were possible. "This rally that started a couple of weeks ago could extend itself over the next couple of months, given some of the more positive news in just the last week," Petursson said. The governor of the Bank of Canada, Mark Carney, said that high commodity prices are unambiguously good for the economy and made clear the central bank would not counter commodity-driven increases in the value of the Canadian dollar. In company news, shares in yogawear retailer Lululemon Athletica Inc (LLL.TO: Quote) jumped 12 percent to C$75.50 after the company reported higher quarterly profit and boosted its outlook, while vowing to push back against cheaper knock-offs that could threaten its business. Garda World Security Corp (GW.TO: Quote) shares jumped 30 percent to C$11.90, just below the C$12 a share in cash offered by a consortium led by its founder and chief executive Stephan Cretier to take the security and cash-handling firm private.

National energy ministers meeting in P.E.I. Guardian – September 10, 2012 Wes Sheridan The future of energy use and procurement in Canada will be the focus of attention in Charlottetown as energy ministers from across the country commence their annual conference Monday in P.E.I. Entitled 'Framing the Future of Energy and Mines,' the conference will allow provincial and federal energy ministers to discuss energy projects and policies and explore ways different provinces may be able to work together on energy initiatives that could benefit Canadians. P.E.I.'s Finance and Energy Minister Wes Sheridan said one of his key areas of focus will be to find out whether P.E.I. could be part of the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project. “I want to see how far along they are with their project and what their final end point would be and is there a possibility for us to be part of this in a real meaningful way,” Sheridan said in an interview. He pointed to P.E.I.'s numerous wind farms, which produce cheaper, renewable energy but present a challenge as a power source when the wind is not blowing. Coupling hydroelectricity with P.E.I.'s wind generation could be a viable solution, Sheridan said.

Chamber News Briefs 19 “Hydro is the very best offset to wind power because you can turn it up and down with a dial and that is one of the things that we want to look at.” P.E.I. will also be part of an initiative to be announced Monday that will highlight eight different areas where the Atlantic provinces hope to collaborate, including joint procurement of energy. “Just as we are looking at different procurement ideas between these provinces, if there's ways we can do energy together and look at better ways of procuring items inside that energy file, then let's look at that and let's make sure we're fully collaborating,” Sheridan said. The energy ministers' convention has drawn the attention of several organizations concerned with the environmental impacts of energy projects in the works in different parts of Canada. A group of concerned P.E.I. residents plan to hold a silent demonstration in front of the hotel where the ministers are meeting to draw attention to their call for a moratorium on a proposed deep-water oil well in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Corridor Resources Inc. is looking for approval from the Canada–Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board to drill a well in the waters east of Prince Edward Island. The group is concerned over the impacts an oil spill could have on the coastlines of the five provinces bordering the gulf. But Sheridan says he will not be asking for a moratorium on this project. “I'm not about to make an evaluation until I hear of the (updated) report on that project and what kind of risk there is associated with the reward of looking into the gulf for further energy,” he said. “We need to hear about that from the professionals and that's what we'll get during these meetings.” The energy ministers' conference meetings begin Monday and will continue until Tuesday afternoon. A news conference announcing details of the Atlantic provinces' collaboration and procurement plans will be held Monday morning in Charlottetown.

Federal-provincial energy ministers to skirt talk of a national strategy Charlottetown Guardian – September 9, 2012 OTTAWA - When federal and provincial energy ministers meet in Charlottetown this week, forging a national energy strategy is conspicuously absent from the agenda. The topic was all the rage this summer, with business groups, environmentalists, aboriginal groups and almost all the premiers saying the time has come for Canadian leaders to hash out a solid plan on how they will handle the country's natural resources. Alberta Premier Alison Redford travelled from province to province, persuading one premier after another that a national energy strategy was in everyone's interests. But the premiers' meeting in July ended with B.C. Premier Christy Clark refusing to talk about any of it until her demands on the Northern Gateway pipeline were recognized. Now, as the provinces come together once again, and are joined by the federal government's Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver, top-level talks toward a national energy strategy appear to have been downgraded to "discussions for collaboration." "I'm looking forward to discussing ways we can collaborate on future energy development," was all Prince Edward Island's minister of finance and energy, Wes Sheridan, would say. Alberta — the driving force behind the push for a national plan — will be in listening mode only, after a last-minute family issue forced Energy Minister Ken Hughes to stay home.

Chamber News Briefs 20 "We're not pushing a national energy strategy in those terms," Oliver said in an interview late Saturday, before leaving to meet his provincial counterparts for dinner on Sunday night. "But the nomenclature isn't what matters." He said the phrase irks many people — likely referring to Westerners with bad memories of the National Energy Program of 1980, but possibly also to the federal government's disdain for grandiose national strategies of any kind. Instead, he said the Sunday evening-to-Tuesday meetings will focus on implementing federal changes to environmental assessment, making sure marine and pipeline safety standards are world class, and investing in market diversification, labour, environment and efficiency. But that's not to say the national energy strategy is dead. There's a broad realization that the country's regions need to take collective responsibility of the development of natural resources so that each region can share in the jobs and economic spin-offs, Oliver said. And after speaking with both Redford and Clark frequently and recently about their differences and about their vision for energy exports, Oliver says there is plenty of common ground. Four of Clark's five conditions are being met, he said, pointing to her insistence that the pipeline pass environmental muster, that oil spill prevention and response are improved both on land and in the sea, and that First Nations rights must be recognized. Yet Oliver did not address the fifth and most problematic condition: that B.C. receive "its fair share" of the economic benefits stemming from exporting heavy oil. Regardless of their differences and the official agenda, the ministers will wind up talking about the need for pan-Canadian infrastructure that will allow for more efficient export of the country's resources, Oliver added. "It's pervasive, really." Every region of the country is caught up with the challenge of moving resources to market and diminishing their dependence on American buyers, he said. In their July statement, however, the premiers, except B.C.'s Clark, were more ambitious than that. They issued a list of common principles and said a national energy strategy was "urgent" because Canada is facing newfound demand for its commodities just as the pressure to deal with climate change soars. The statement was not just about pipelines and bitumen. It was also about creating a low-carbon economy, sustainable development, renewable energy and taking a more integrated approach to climate change. The premiers put Alberta, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador in charge of coming up with details. Still, the statement was vague enough for many an interest group to read their own agendas into it. The World Wildlife Fund in Canada says work on the strategy gives provinces the perfect opportunity to devise a carbon-pricing scheme for the country that will move Canada more quickly towards its climate change goals. Some environmentalists are heading to Charlottetown to push for sustainable development and lower emissions. The Mowat Centre for Policy Innovation, based in Toronto, sees a chance to build a strategy based on all region's needs to invest better in energy technology. And provinces have widely divergent views of how Canada's natural resources should be treated, said energy economist Andre Plourde, dean of public affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Chamber News Briefs 21 So it's not surprising that the federal government, as co-host of the Charlottetown meeting, is not going to push talks for a national energy strategy ahead, Plourde said. "It's hard to talk about it because it will be clear that all parties don't agree." There is no clear understanding of what a national strategy would actually do, beyond stating principles that reflect what governments do already, he added. "We're going to end up with some kind of bromide: 'we all want the energy sector to grow.'"

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