Williams Lake City Council Wants Mt. Polley Reopened
Williams Lake, B.C. – Sensing looming layoffs at Mt. Polley mine, Williams Lake City Council is asking the provincial government to allow the mine to begin operating again.
Williams Lake City Councillor Surinderpal Rathor
All 360 employees, most of whom live in Williams Lake and surrounding areas, are still on the job performing mitigation work in the wake of the breach August 4th.
However city councillor Surinderpal Rathor says there’s a fear layoffs could come before Christmas.
“I’ve spoken to the mine’s manager and he says they’re bleeding money faster than anything. He doesn’t think they’ll have enough work for all the employees there. And if no measures are taken they might have to lay off a large percentage of the staff.”
He says if that happens, it would be disastrous for the economy of Williams Lake.
“This would kill the city. We don’t want to see another Mackenzie here do we?”
Rathor says the mine has a policy directing its staff to spend 100% locally and estimates that pumps $1 million daily into the local economy.
He says it’s council’s wish that they speed up their three year investigation into the breach while at the same time operating under “very strict rules.”
But Rathor, who first made the recommendation to council during a committee of the whole meeting last month, says it’s important people realize the city still wants to get to the bottom of what happened.
“I want to make sure in no shape or form that people understand Williams Lake City Council is not asking the government to bypass any regulations. No. We want them to do a proper investigation. But speed it up.”
He says on Tuesday council agreed unanimously to write letters to the premier, mining minister and local MLA’s outlining their concerns.
In the meantime Rathor says a sense of unease has blanketed the entire community of roughly 11,000 people.
“People are very scared. They are wondering what’s going to happen to the economy. People have stopped spending money, holding every penny they can.”
Comments
The Liberal Government, MLA’s Minister of Mining, should all be on top of this file.
If there is some way to keep the mine running while they do their investigation then that’s what they should do.
The problem is that Governments and Politicians seem to be incapable of actually solving problem in a decent time frame and in a meaningful way.
What do we pay these people for????
You pay them to sit behind a desk, what do you expect? You want them to open the mine before all the mitigation work and investigation work is complete? Has Polley Lake blockage been fixed? Those on the ground know better than keyboard punching types unless you have control of a secret spy sat.
The mill explosions have just finished up their investigations this year, This has much more environmental impact, just patch it up and let er rip? What did Willy’s Puddle do before the mine opened to rely so heavily on 350 employees paycheck?
This is why we need some vision from council, go after diversity, chase those companies – if you have to give then 5 years grace to set up shop what is that in the long haul? When one employer can shut down your entire town that is not good news. Same old for PG also is just asking for trouble in the future – get someone with vision in the big chair – who cares if they just filled a chair for 3 years… oops,,, who cares if they voted to expand the airport and runway… what is their vision for the future of PG? Stick those IPG dollars into a corporate strategy of attracting companies to PG not hiring workers for companies already here.
That is another man’s opinion
Bureaucracy is killing this Province.
Lets crank up the beehive burners too.. heck with the environment..
Can’t see a problem if mine keeps operating while at the same time carrying out remedial work on the spill, money in money out.
Hmmmm… Refill the tailings pond before you know what caused it to blow, no problems
“The Liberal Government, MLA’s Minister of Mining, should all be on top of this file.”
You have evidence that says they are not?
The tailings is the issue (duh). Its easy to say “reopen it” but obviously the failed tailings pond cannot be used so what does that leave? Build a new one? If so, how long a process do you think is fair for an environmental review, design and fabrication of a new tailings system? Keeping in mind there will still be no “money in” until that is done. I would love to see the mine reopened during the investigation but its not quite as simple as saying “yeah go ahead, dig up some rocks”
I don’t think that the cause of the failure of the tailings pond is unknown. What we are dealing with here is Government red tape, Corporate fear of being sued, and of insurance claims, etc; So this issue will drag on for years, after which the company will plead bankruptcy and move on.
So I guess we just lay off the workers, close the mine, and wait for the red tape to clear.
Why do I get the feeling that if the government had decided last week to allow the mine to resume operations, you guys would be complaining about that too?
JohnnyBelt:-“Bureaucracy is killing this Province.”
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Truer words were never spoken. And what, exactly, does all this bureaucracy ever really accomplish? If its goal is to make work for itself and create an excuse to hire the graduated but otherwise unemployable constant outpourings of our institutions of higher learning, I suppose that’s something. But surely any society that’s so wrapped up in everyone having a ‘job’ could find something more productive, or at very least, less annoying, for all these poor souls to do? And let those of us who still do produce the real goods and services we all need and want get on with doing just that instead of having to continually satisfy the ever growing list of inanities the bureaucratic mindset can come up with to justify their positions.
There is no shortage of **pretend** jobs in the hallways of the various levels of Government in BC.
As pointed out by John Cleese in the series Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
The one I liked the best was the **Minister of Funny Walks** and there were others of course.
We have a number of these types of positions sprinkled through out the thousands of Government jobs in the Province.
if you want to,use the ponds to,hold tailings then LINE IT…THere certainly is a product out there that will do the job.
So that way it will stop any type of leeching(I don’t care how packed it is..it will absorb what is ever in the tailing ponds) there is always leeching with soil.. And can contain till acceptable for discharge..
We hear every big company talk about the environment but a rare few actually mean it.
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