With all the cabinet ministers in town over the weekend, there was no shortage of feedback on issues of importance to Prince Rupert. One of the key issues of the last year was the potential sale of Ridley Terminals to a private operator.
In fact as the last federal election got underway it looked as though the Terminal would be sold off to private interests while the campaign went on. But in the end, the new Conservative government derailed that deal and for the moment has left the Terminal as a publicly owned corporation, one that stands on the cusp of much better times.
The talk over the weekend was not about any privatization plans, but rather about the potential boom that could come with development of coal resources in the northeast and other mining projects on the drawing board.
The Daily News gave the Bill Bennett, the Minister of State for Mining a platform and he provided his take on the state of mining and the Terminal in the northwest.
RIDLEY TO REMAIN PUBLIC, MINSTER
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Page One
As far as the province’s Minister of State for Mining knows, there are no future threats to the public operation of Ridley Terminals.
Bill Bennett, who was part of the effort to stop the federal government sell off of the coal handling facility to a private operator last year, said the current government has no further plans to change the operations of the facility.
“The federal government has said they are going to leave it the way it is right now,” said Bennett, who made his first trip to the province’s northern coal handling facility last week.
Bennett said it’s been made clear just how important the operation is to the future of the northeastern coal sector.
“You won’t have a Northeast coal sector without Ridley. First of all they are at capacity in Vancouver and secondly it is too expensive to ship all the way down in Vancouver,’ he said.
“It looks like Ridley has capacity for more product and that’s good.”
The Minister is meeting this week with a large international company interested in a new mine development which would add to the current coal tonnage being mined in the northeast.
“You could easily see coal shipments in the northeast doubling, tripling, quadrupling, there’s a demand for it in China and India,” he said.
Whatever happens with the terminal in the future, he said B. C.’s position remains that the terminal must allow B. C. companies to compete with their main competitor in the international coal markets – Australia.
“Australian coal ports are what they call operating on a ‘cost pass through’ basis, much like Ridley. Ridley doesn’t pretend to make enormous profits and that’s the way it has to stay if we are going to have a successful northeast coal sector,” he said.
“For us the bottom line remains, if the federal government is going to propose a change, it has to remain a cost pass through operation where you don’t give somebody the opportunity to gouge somebody moving coal through.”
In the meantime, the province is continuing to improve certainty for the mining sector through its Land Resource Management Plans, letting companies know where exploration is acceptable.
“We’ve got a pretty clear policy on mining now in this province, we’ve got go mining zones and no mining zones,” he said. “We don’t mine in parks or protected areas so any areas that has been identified in a land use plan that are protected, clearly the exploration companies know enough not to spend any money there.”
He added the industry has also been improving its relationship with First Nations.
“I wouldn’t claim that it is all positive and every company is doing a great job of it but there are now some excellent examples of mining companies who have very constructive relationships with First Nations. Nova Gold and the Talhtan is a prime example,” he said.
On the North Coast, he pointed to Swamp Point, a new large gravel operation as another example.
“They are going to ship gravel to California. It’s a partnership between Ascot Resources and the Nisga’a.”
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