Although the mood was rather glum last week, when Vale Canada president and chief executive officer Tito Martins called on Thompsonites to stop protesting the closure of Vale's Thompson smelter and refinery and start looking at how to ensure the city's future survival, local politicians and stakeholders are saying nothing has changed.
"Everyone that's working on this is on the next step, which is the options and proposals that we're going to be giving to Vale," said Thompson MLA Steve Ashton, who is also minister of infrastructure and transportation.
The proposals - which have included input from a wide array of stakeholders, including the province, the City of Thompson, United Steelworkers Local 6166 (USW), members of the federal government and others - are designed to protect the 500 jobs expected to be lost when Vale shuts down the smelter and refinery in 2015.
Ashton, who was not able to see Martins speak as he was in Toronto at a national conference of ministers responsible for emergency measures, said that he expected the proposals to be presented to Vale as early as late this week.
"When we met with Vale in Toronto, they outlined their reasons, which were emissions and feed," said Ashton. "We've taken what they said very seriously."
Just as Dave Chomiak, minister of innovation, energy and mining, did when he was in Thompson last week, Ashton said he wouldn't negotiate in public. However, both ministers suggested that environmental regulations would be a major part of their proposal. "We've been pursuing directly some of the issues on the 2015 emission targets," said Ashton, noting that he had spoken to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, also the senior minister for Manitoba, as well as other ministers.
Vale has said that new regulations relating to sulphur dioxide (SO2), coming into effect for 2015, would force the company to reduce its emissions levels in Thompson by 88 per cent. Martins told the Thompson Chamber of Commerce annual general meeting that loosening those restrictions still wouldn't be enough to keep the above-ground facilities open, as the issue of feed would also come into play once the Long Harbour processing facilities open in 2013.
Vale has said that new regulations relating to sulphur dioxide (SO2), coming into effect for 2015, would force the company to reduce its emissions levels in Thompson by 88 per cent. Martins told the Thompson Chamber of Commerce annual general meeting that loosening those restrictions still wouldn't be enough to keep the above-ground facilities open, as the issue of feed would also come into play once the Long Harbour processing facilities open in 2013.
"We're going to approach the options as if we were sitting down with Vale, and they were looking to come to Thompson, had no connection to Thompson," said Ashton. "We're going to come up with creative solutions, and we encourage and quite frankly challenge Vale to do the same as well. I think it's in their best interest to look at this."
"It doesn't change anything for us," said USW Local 6166 President Murray Nychyporuk, who added that USW had been involved in putting together the proposal being presented to Vale. "There are other options they might not have contemplated."
Churchill MP Niki Ashton also weighed in on Martins' speech. "I think what was clear out of that meeting, through the questions and the sentiment coming out from a lot of people, is that there's extreme uncertainty about the announcement," she said. "People don't like the announcement, and it's created real uncertainty in our lives, in our community."
"We have a committee in place - the province, the city, the Steelworkers - who have been working along with federal officials to come up with a plan to keep our value-added jobs in our community," she added. "What I really hope to see is Tito Martins and Vale take these proposals seriously, and commit to keeping value-added jobs in our community."
Ashton also suggested that in exchange for concessions from the federal government, Vale has an added layer of accountability. "Despite Vale talking about being this large, profitable company that's growing, they just received a billion-dollar loan from our government, made up of our tax dollars," she noted. "For me, it's absolutely critical that they take us seriously as a community that has given them a great deal, but also as Canadian citizens who are saying 'wait a second, you've got our money, this announcement goes against the '56 agreement, this announcement goes against the idea that we should make a livelihood off of processing our resource, not just mining it."
