According to all the so-called experts even the next two years (and especially 2009) are going to be recession years as well, so the Mayor may have to wait a bit longer than next Spring.

Additionally, RT will have to cough up a ten billion repayment this year of its forty billion dollar loan to buy Alcan, with another eight billion due next year.

So one can expect RT to be really watching its finances now that metal prices and demand are on the downslope.

RT has no plans to build a smelter in Kitimat anymore. They have too much debt that they can't service and are at extreme risk of a leveraged induced melt down. They might not even hold together for the next year as one company.

IMO BC should waste no time in nationalizing the Kemano assets under BC Hydro control through a buy out offer to RT's creditors (by-pass the board and go straight to the creditors IMO). Once we own our crown resource wholly again, then we can deal with all the aluminum makers in this world that would build smelters for fixed long term hydro access rates. If it costs us $2.5 billion to reclaim our sovereignty then its a cost of doing business that will pay for itself in less then a decade IMO, because then BC is in charge of economic development relating to Kemano, rather than foreign shareholders with no interest in BC other than resource monopolies.

Time Will Tell

Eagleone, So what happens if RT, tells us to shove it, and say we will stop making aluminum. Big or small business, if it is not making money, don't waste time employing thankless union employees.

RT makes aluminum? I thought they were in the power business.

I know that when the signs are good you bought more product, when the trend is down you ease off.”

Some people never learn. The oppisite would work much better. When times are good we should be hording our money and spend it when times are bad which is what we have right now.

But all our moneymen are the same. When profits are up they travel around the globe buying other corporations getting into debt up too their eyeballs. At this moment we are reaping the benifits of these small minds. Isnt capitalism wonderfull.

Cheers

RT already told us to shove it. Isn't that what this news release is all about... wasn't that what their power agreement was all about? Not sure what the union has to do with all of this, but I would argue very little.

Eagleone
I agree entirely. Governments should never own railroad operations (maybe rail lines) but I think we all agree that selling water rights was a terrible mistake that needs to be corrected at any cost.

I also agree with Bridge that this is when capital investment should take place, unfortunately there is no money to invest with right now.

Had Alcan put their money in the bank when they had profits it would have given the banks the oppertunity to sock it away. Today the banks would bave money to lend and not depend on government to bail them out at this time.

It begs the question, do these guys know what they are doing or are they just blinded by profit. We go through these boom and bust cycles but keep doing the same old same old over and over.

Some one has recently told us that it wasnt the "New Deal" in the US that bailed us out of the dirty thirties but the second world war did the job. Is this what we are waitung for? Why arent we building for peace?

Instead of spending billions on the present wars around the world why arent we producing ploughshares and giving them to the third world countries to improve their livelyhood? Remember we were once an agricultural nation untill industry took over. Is that all we can build at the present time is automobiles? What happened to the rest of our industry? Was it globalization and free trade that destroyed them?

Cheers

Bridge you can blame our lose of industry on Henry Kissinger... he is the one building the structure for the NWO and is currently going around the world twisting arms for the proposed global currency to replace the US Fed ponzi scheme and cement total global dictatorship.

Our industry was exported to China, because China was willing buy the banksters debt at a time in the 80's when our economy stopped being able to finance the debts that the banksters required to continue their ponzi scheme. China provided the huge manufacturing base to float a debt-driven consumer economy and agreed to trade American paper for the fast track to economic modernization with the agreement that they invest their paper in American assets to support the American currency and thus the banksters ponzi scheme to its next level. China had nothing to lose in the short term, and so they accept our industry as a gift from the bankster for their cooperation in the fleecing of America and western economies. China financed the last 2o years of American growth in debt... but now that the US Fed is going to a zero interest rate and it remains to be seen if their unholy alliance will hold, or if China will go rouge now that it has possession of all the industry....

Basically our industry was sold out to a foreign competitor so banks could sell more paper and fabricate more dollars to enrich themselves. I say us because anything the Americans do we follow being their junior partner in 'free trade'.

Posted by: He speaks on December 29 2008 9:35 AM
Eagleone, So what happens if RT, tells us to shove it, and say we will stop making aluminum. Big or small business, if it is not making money, don't waste time employing thankless union employees.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WTF do union employees have to do with this you knob. Your comments, as you, are worthless.
OMFG!

Eagleone, you state some interesting facts. I am curious to know if you have had a chance to review this site?

http://www.worldreports.org/news

I started reading these articles on the October 11th, 2008. The first article I had viewed was about:

11 Oct 2008 GERMAN FINANCE MINISTER AMBUSHED OVER SETTLEMENTS

On Saturday, October 11th, 2008, when I discovered this information, I was in disbelief until Sunday October 12th, 2008. I was reading the news intently to see if there was any truth in the above article. Almost everything that was stated in this article started to make the media (press,news) on Sunday, October 12th, 2008.

It will be interesting to see how things unfold for us here in Canada.

I've found that if you look hard enough, you can find a website to support any idea you can come up with.

MrPG

Information from my above post was posted on CBC. This was the original post. Do some research.

E. Coli from Maritimes, Canada writes: Will the truth ever come out?

SPECIAL MEETING OF ANGRY G-7 MEMBERS TO CONVENE IN PARIS ON SUNDAY
Extreme dissatisfaction within the Group of Seven (G-7) financial powers (as reflected in the unprecedentedly short G7-Communique yesterday) at the continued criminal intransigence of the leadership of the White House and the US Treasury, will take the form of a Heads State Meeting in Paris on Sunday 12th October.

http://www.worldreports.org/news/177germanfinanceministerambushedoversettlements

In one sentence, the stockmarket crash was triggered by Europe as an attempt to get billions owing them and and constantly blocked by Bush, Greenspan, Paulson et al for the past number of years.
Posted 11/10/08 at 8:26 PM EDT | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment



http://www.worldreports.org/news/177germanfinanceministerambushedover

CORRECTION- information posted above was on the CTV- Globe and mail site, not CBC.

MrPG, here is another interesting article that supports my above posts. Happy reading:

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=dc503e15-7585-4eff-af87-85536e0ff700

Banking system on brink of 'meltdown'
Leaders still in crisis mode after Washington meeting
Steven Edwards, Canwest News Service
Published: Sunday, October 12
WASHINGTON - A heightened sense of urgency over the economic crisis gripped world leaders Saturday even as U.S. President George W. Bush appeared with the G7 finance ministers -- among them Canada's Jim Flaherty -- in a bid to underline their resolve to tackle the problem.
At the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund, the head of the organization warned the world financial system was teetering on the "brink of systemic meltdown" amid fears over the health of banks that have frozen credit markets.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn said measures taken by rich countries had so far failed in their goals of "stabilizing markets and bolstering confidence," and warned further intervention and co-ordinated actions would be necessary.

From left, Canada's finance minister Jim Flaherty, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn make their way to hear President George W. Bush speak on Saturday to G7 finance ministers and heads of international financial institutions.
Getty Images


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Meanwhile, finance leaders from the IMF's 185 member countries on Saturday endorsed the G7 plan to chart a course out of the credit crisis, hoping the broader support will calm markets.
Egyptian Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali, who chairs the IMF's policy-steering committee, said the endorsement should help restore confidence in financial markets.
In a bid to quantify the consequences of the continuing crisis, the IMF's chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, said stock markets could fall by another 20 per cent before governments are likely to be in a position to stop the rout.
Markets around the world fell by about that much over the last week alone despite the announcement of major government plans, which have included the U.S. government's $700-billion US pledge to buy distressed securities from banks, and an internationally co-ordinated interest rate cut by six nations, including Canada.
In Europe, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called a crisis summit in Paris of the 15 euro zone countries today -- even though they had scheduled to meet in Brussels as early as Wednesday.
The summons meant the euro-zone finance ministers among the G7 group in Washington had to fast-forward their return trips to make the meeting, where the countries are expected to consider following the British lead in "recapitalizing" debt-ridden banks by taking equity stakes in them.
The U.S. government is also moving to, in effect, partially nationalize some of its struggling banks as a way to keep them solvent.
But Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday there would be no European bailout plan like Washington's, but they spoke of implementing a common "toolbox" of measures -- and other sources said the group could move to guarantee inter-bank lending.
Flaherty said in an interview that Canadian banks could be in the a position to extend their own equity share of the U.S. banking sector because, in contrast to their now-troubled U.S. counterparts, lending criteria in Canada had been more conservative, resulting in them being called the world's "soundest" by World Economic Forum last week.
On a campaign stop ahead of the Oct. 14 election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said moves by some governments to bolster their financial systems may be detrimental to the economy in the long run. "There is some concern among the G7 that some countries are going overboard and are getting into backdoor subsidies of banks in a way that is not in the long-run interest of the marketplace," Harper said in London, Ont.
Flaherty, speaking separately, said that while the crisis largely originated in the U.S., it was now additionally "affecting the emerging economies" -- and some of the bigger ones among them were vocal in their criticism at the IMF on Saturday.

MrPG,

Heres another article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7666274.stm

Page last updated at 22:14 GMT, Sunday, 12 October 2008 23:14 UK
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European banks rescue plan agreed


Nicolas Sarkozy announces the rescue plan

European leaders meeting in Paris have agreed a plan to tackle the banking crisis, saying no big institution will be allowed to fail.
They pledged to guarantee loans between banks until the end of 2009, and said they would put money into them by buying preference shares.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said they were taking unprecedented steps.
World governments have been racing to throw banks a lifeline before the major markets re-open on Monday.
News of the rescue plan came from Mr Sarkozy - whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU - after talks between leaders of the 15 countries in the euro currency zone.
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown - not a member of the eurozone club - attended parts of the talks.
Britain announced a similar plan last week.
Capital injection
Mr Sarkozy said leaders had agreed a framework in which individual countries would be able to inject capital into their own banks by means of preference shares.
He said governments in Germany, France and Italy among others would be presenting their individual plans on Monday, within the agreed framework.
"The crisis has over the past few days entered into a phase that makes it intolerable to opt for procrastination and a go-it-alone approach," he said.
Mr Sarkozy said the guarantees would be at commercial rates, and he stressed rash financiers would not benefit from the public intervention.
"Where managers are at fault they will be dismissed," he said.

The poorest and most vulnerable groups risk the most serious - and in some cases permanent - damage
Robert Zoellick
World Bank president
Mr Sarkozy said the plan addressed all aspects of the financial crisis, but he did not say how much it would cost.
Analysts say sheer nervousness has been a big factor in the recent share price falls.
But European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso - also at the talks - said the plan would end "the excessive pessimism of the markets."
"We have taken the right course for Europe, for our businesses and our citizens," he said.
Outside Europe, the plan was welcome by the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Speaking in Washington, he described the plan as helpful.
"I think that we now have a comprehensive response to the crisis and I think that the market will reflect it," he said.
The European plan came at the end of a weekend of crisis meetings.
"Decisive action"
On Saturday, finance ministers of the main economic nations - the G7 - meeting in Washington issued a five-point plan of what they called "decisive action" to unfreeze credit markets.
During the day on Sunday a number of individual countries announced rescue plans for their banks.
But even as attention focussed on rescue plans for nations of the rich West, the head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, warned that the global crisis could hit developing countries even harder.
"The poorest and most vulnerable groups risk the most serious - and in some cases permanent - damage," he said.