Spin, Spin Spin :One Man's Opinion

By Ben Meisner

   It is always interesting to watch the spin take place when Alcan looks to put its hand into the pockets of the people of the province.

You always get a healthy dose of PR spin, oddly enough, most always from either present or former employees of the company.

Case in point, Hans Wagner, who came to the city, when the company was trying to divert the balance of the Nechako River under the guise of aluminum production. Wagner set up shop and would hand out a little snippit here or there to whomever would ask for it. All of course complete with the Alcan Aluminum stamp on it. His latest talks,while coming out of Vancouver, center around the “public interest" that Alcan replace the old inefficient and rather polluting current smelter with a cleaner more efficient one.

If Alcan's present smelter is polluting, treat it in the same manner as any other company in this province , make them live up to standards .

Never ever will you notice in any comments from these people will you get a comment about just what Alcan wants in return for that “new smelter".

An increase in the rate that Alcan charges BC Hydro (you) under a new contract, which amounts to $1 billion dollars.  It is an amount the people of the province will be asked to pay.  $110,000,000 dollars, the money Alcan had to pay out for selling power to Enron in the US .   A reduction of 500 jobs that will come as result of that , “new pollution free smelter”.

Wagner, et-al, never seem to get around to telling the people that they are trying to spin that it is the B.C. resident and taxpayer who will pay for their profits.

If the sale of Hydro electric power has not been a major profit source for them, how come they insist on a new contract?  A contract that will see increases in power costs to the consumers of BC?

I recall in the last go round a person with very close Alcan connections, went around to the Citizen to ask them to print a story that I had received a speeding ticket in my boat in Prince Rupert. The Citizen printed it, although  I can’t remember either before or after when they have ever repeated that type of story.  More interestingly was the intent, was it to somehow discredit me?  Then there was the time when a high ranking official with the company flying over the Nechako , pointed down to a house below and said to his passenger , “I’d like to bomb that house".  That "house" just happened to be mine. I must say I was deeply flattered. So don’t be surprised when you see an X on my back.

Alcan should have should have been the originators of that catchy song "hands in your pockets, hands in your pockets."  In Quebec , the government loaned (interest free) $400 million to Alcan for 30 years, a further $112,000,000 in tax breaks, a 50 year extension of  the company's water rights , and below cost power for the term of that contract.

Here in B.C., the figure to “buy” 500 jobs will be much higher.

You can’t help but ask yourself this question:  If Alcan doesn’t have a contract to sell power to BC Hydro because they want too much,  and B.C. seeks power elsewhere, then what  will Alcan will do with that surplus power? 

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.  

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