Plenty of Interest in Natural Resource Forum
Prince George, B.C. – One week from today, the focus will be on natural resource development in B.C., as the annual Natural Resource Forum takes place at the Civic Centre.
The two days will include a tradeshow, information panels, and Premier Christy Clark will take center stage as the luncheon speaker on Wednesday. Tickets for that luncheon have long since been sold out.
The forum sessions will feature experts, covering everything from forestry to LNG, mining to skills development and the transportation of natural resources.
Prince George- Mackenzie MLA Mike Morris, the host MLA for the event, says he had a vision for this forum, the first he has hosted "There's been forums and conferences across the province on a regular basis on natural resources and different segments of the resource sector, but my vision for Prince George is to turn this into THE resource forum for the Province on an annual basis, so that's the direction I'm going in." Morris says he would like to see the forum grow large enough to see it take place in the CN Centre.
Registration for the two day forum has exceeded expectations, “This tells us that there is a very strong level of interest in the bright future for British Columbia’s natural resource sector in general, and for the Prince George region in particular.”
Morris says he is hoping that when the two day forum wraps up, everyone will have the same feeling that he has,and that is, things are going to happen "2014 is going to be a transitional year and get ready for the big boom, because with the resource sector just on the threshold of great things that are happening out there, everyone is going to leave optimistic and believing that things are going to happen." At the end of the day, Morris says he would also like people to understand the boom is a collaborative effort "No longer do we have each resource sector working in a silo by themselves, we have them collaborating with each other, because we have to look at that, with the jobs and trades, and the skills that we require, I think everyone has to work together."
Comments
Hey⦠I have an idea; How about getting Thomas Shrake; CEO of Vancouver based Pacific Rim Mining Company to be this forum’s keynote speaker?
“For the second time in six months, a community leader known for his strong opposition to a Canadian gold and silver mining project in El Salvadorâs Cabañas Department has been killed. Ramiro Rivera, vice-president of the Environmental Committee of Cabañas, was gunned down on Sunday, December 20, in the town of Ilobasco. His wife FelÃcita EcheverrÃa, next to him, died as well, and a 13-year-old girl was wounded.”
“According to witnesses, several gunmen ambushed their vehicle and shot them with assault rifles, despite the presence of two police bodyguards. This follows the late June kidnapping, torture and assassination of Marcelo Rivera (no relation) in the municipality of San Isidro. Both men had been vocal critics of Vancouver, B.C., mining company Pacific Rim’s proposed El Dorado gold mine.”
http://www.miningwatch.ca/es/second-anti-mining-activist-killed-el-salvador
Seems to be business as usual for a number of Canadian resource extraction companies abroad!!! :-(
Come on 250news, leave my comment up, I think it’s important that people realize what is going on in El Salvador and other countries where Canada’s natural resource extraction companies are operating!
Not only are our natural resource extraction companies getting a bad reputation abroad, but by extension, our country and we (as it’s citizens) are getting a bad reputation as well.
Just to show everyone the above story is not an isolated incident here is another:
“Last week the Ontario Superior Court of Justice released a path-breaking decision, Choc v. Hudbay Minerals, that might, for the first time, require a Canadian mining company to take legal responsibility for human rights abuses abroad. The case concerns the alleged gang rape of indigenous women and the murder of an indigenous leader. Both are alleged to have occurred in Guatemala in the course of an ongoing dispute over indigenous land rights at the site of a mine owned by HudBayâs Guatemalan subsidiary.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/will-canadian-companies-be-held-responsible-for-their-actions-abroad/article13524877/
We are only scratching the surface here, I can provide more examples than just El Salvador and Guatemala. The Liberal Party, in official opposition at the time, tried to pass a bill in the house of commons to make our Canadian Natural Resource extraction companies more accountable and responsible abroad⦠but Harper and his government nixed that bill. I guess murder and gang-rape is ok with this Conservative Government. :-(
Holy people#1 are u writing a book?
We are busy in Mexico as well, it would seem :-(
“The Canadian embassy in Mexico City sought to protect Blackfire Exploration Ltd. even after the Calgary mining firm was linked to the murder of an activist who opposed its mine in Chiapas, an investigative report by an NGO reveals.”
http://www.ipolitics.ca/2013/05/06/canadian-diplomats-backed-scandal-ridden-mining-firm-in-mexico-report/
Hmm.. how many of us would have associated Canadian mining companies with allegations of murder and gang-rape? Makes me so proud to be Canadian⦠NOT!!!
So we have the Harper Government’s foreign diplomats actively defending a Canadian Mining Company that has been linked to the murder of a local activist in Mexico.
Wow, you would think a church going Prime Minister would know the difference between right and wrong? Murder and gang-rape is wrong Mr. Harper!!!!
No doubt about it, Canadian companies are a nightmare to local and indigenous peoples in other countries, who would dare oppose natural resource extraction in their own country.
“(Toronto) – Private security personnel employed at a gold mine in Papua New Guinea have been implicated in alleged gang rapes and other violent abuses, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Porgera mine has produced billions of dollars of gold in its twenty years of operation, and is operated and 95 percent owned by Barrick Gold, a Canadian company that is the world’s largest gold producer.”
http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/02/01/papua-new-guinea-serious-abuses-barrick-gold-mine
Hey Harper, implications of more gang-rape by the employees of a Canadian Company operating in Papua New Guinea, so what are you going to do about it????
Tinkerbella is right; I could write a book on the human rights abuses our Canadian Companies are perpetrating on the citizens of developing countries world wide!
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