Ted it

Cassiar costs us big money

TERRACE —The provincial
government could face a bill ap-
proaching $50 million by the
time it winds up the Cassiar
Mining Corporation affair.

And the provincial govern-
ment minister in charge of the
situation isn’t expecting much
of a return once assets of the
company are sold, ;

Involved is an unpaid $20
million loan made by the
government in 1988, honouring
a guarantee to cover a $5
million loan made by the Bank
of Montreal to the company in
1991 and writing off $6 million
in unpaid interest.

An additional $15.4 million is
expected to be spent in keeping
town services going, honouring
unpaid bills, providing
severance pay to the nearly 370
people who worked at the mine
and paying relocation costs for
those workers them and the
other 80 people who had jobs in
the town.

““We have not yet begun to
consider the value of the
assets,’”
Dan Miller, the cabinet minister
put in charge of the situation.

The province is the main
creditor because of that $20
million loan in 1988, Among the
assets secured against that loan
are wharves and docking
facilities in Vancouver.

‘7 suppose there is an outside
chance of a buyer, but that was
more of an opportunity when
we were looking at a soft
closure,’’ said Miller.

That soft closure plan to
gradually shut down the mine

said forests minister |

Dan Miller

“| suppose there is an
outside chance of a
buyer, but that was
more of an opportunity
when we were looking at
a soft closure,” said
Miller.

by summer fell apart when the
province had the company plac-
ed in receivership Feb, 5,

The morning before the pro-
vince, the company and other
creditors appeared in court to
work out a tentative plan
whereby the province would
provide $13 million and a $5

million loan guarantee as part
of the soft closure plan.

In return, the province would
receive the revenue from the
sale of asbestos ore to help
defray the investment.

Included in the plan was a-

provision for the province to
appoint a monitor to oversee
how the money would be spent.

But later the same: day
Cassiar Mining Corporation
gave the province a set of finan-
cial demands for an immediate
payment.

The provincial government
then responded by asking the
courts to place the company in
receivership and to immediately
close down the mine.

Part of the decision rested on
information on debts Cassiar
hadn’t revealed and which came
to light after the court hearing,
said Miller,

He declined to be more
specific about those debts and
how much money Cassiar had
demanded, —

“We just lost confidence in
the ability of the company to
proceed,’’ said Miller. ‘‘I’m not
prepared to discuss this any far-
ther but I’m not saying that
there won't be information
released some day.”

“The main issue is protecting
the investment of the taxpayer,
In this case, we couldn’t go
ahead,”? Miller continued.

He also said the costs of the
closure were better described as
an investment in the people now
living in Cassiar so they can
move on to other employment.

“We have made a commit-

Group underway
to aid residents

TERRACE —A committee has
been set up to help move people
out of Cassiar.

Composed of representatives
from various parts of the com-
munity, it’s receiving. financial
and other assistance from the
provincial and federal govern-
ments,

Just two weeks old, one of
the committee’s first tasks is

opening a job search centre for

the people who lost their jobs
when the Cassiar Mining Cor-
poration went into receivership
and for those who'll be affected
when the town closes.

The centre will connect peo-
ple with prospective employers
in other parts of the country,
says Mike Riseborough, the ac-
ting provincial government
agent in Cassiar and also the

committee chairman.

‘We've ordered telephone
lines and equipment, fax
machines and photocopiers.
The plan is starting to take
shape,"” he said last week.

The committee is modeled
after similar ones set up when
there are large plant. closures.

Cailed industrial adjustment
committees, this one is different
because it involves not just one
segment of a community, but

everybody who lives in it, said
Riseborough.

“In the normal course of
events, ihe company is still an
entity and the committee starts

, up prior te a plant shutdown,”

he said.

But since Cassiar Mining

Corporation no longer exists

and the need is broader-based,
the committee has an expanded

The committee’s main
financial backer is the
provincial government.
That comes from its
commitment to not only
help the former miners
but to give assistance to
all those in the com-
munity.

area of concentration,
Riseborough continued,

“We'll be looking at social
needs, economic needs, re-.
training, re-location,”’ he said.

The greater impact of the
mine’s closure — it employed
nearly 370 of the estimated 450
people in Cassiar who worked
there — has broadened the com-
miltee’s membership.

It has people representing the

community at large, the
Steelworkers Union and other
labour organizations, the school
district, the business communi-
ty, the management group at

_ the mine and the federal and
* provincial governments. ts

Aside from the jab search
centre, one of the committee’s
first tasks is designing a ques-
tionnaire to be filled out by
members of the community.

It?s to gather information on
the needs of the estimated 1,100

‘people in Cassiar.

With that information, the
committee can then better

_ prepare for its task of helping

people move and find new
work, said Riseborough.

One suggestion being warked
on is providing training for
business people who may want
to set up elsewhere, he added.

The committee’s main finan-
cial backer is the provincial
government, That comes from
its commitment to not only help
the former miners but to give
assistance to all those in the
community.

Canada Employment Centre
workers have already visited
Cassiar to set up unemployment
insurance claims for those
without work.

New school opens with
uncertainty over future

TERRACE —Cassiar may
become a ghost town later this
year if the mine closes but its
secondary students will go out
in style.

That's because they moved
into a new $6 million school late
last year.

William Storie Secondary
School — named after an area
miner — has 80 students enroll-
ed and replaces a building that
had been condemned for years,
Stikine school — district

superintendent Dr. Garry Roth
said last week.

Complete with specialty
teaching rooms, the new struc-
ture has the capacity to hold 120
students, he said.

Roth said the move came just
in time because a section of the
old Cassiar Secondary School
building collapsed Jan. 20,

“If it had been occupied,
there would have been some
seriously injured. people. We
were really quite fartunate,”’

Roth added.

The 80 secondary students
and the 180 pupils in Cassiar’s
elementary school make up
nearly 50 per cent of the Stikine
school district's population.

Other schools are located in
Atlin, Lower Post, Telegraph
Creek and Dease Lake.

The school district is the
tiniest in the province in terms
of student population but the
largest when it comes to
geographic boundaries.

Mines on polluters’ list

TERRACE — Three northwest
mines appeared on B.C. En-
vironment’s latest list of con-
taminated sites it’s concerned
about.

The three all appear because
of the danger of acid mine
drainage — contaminated water
that becomes acidic as it courses
over broken rock and tailings at
mine sites. Acid mine drainage
is capable of killing fish: ‘bearing
streams. -

According to the report!

*® Noranda Minerals’ Bell
mine at Granisle is producing
acid-contaminaled . run-off
water from tailings. That water
is currently being collected and
treated, but the ministry is con-
cerned because the: company
hasn't finalized any plans to
keep collecting the con-
taminated water after, it closes
the mine, The mine. will be
removed from the list as soon as

‘the company draws up an ac-.
_ ceptable. plan for dealing with

acid mine drainage after the
closure of the mine.

* Acid mine water continues
to drain. from a 60-year-old
abandoned mine and tailings
pile at Anyox, owned by Moss
Management Ine.

* An inactive silver mine at
Houston, owned by New
Nadina Explorations, is drain-
ing acid mine.water that'is also
contaminated with high zinc
levels; No firm plans have been
developed to treat the problem.

ment to the people in Cassiar
and the task is now to take care
of those people,’’ Miller added.

Part of the provincial govern-
ment cost of the closure will
come from a decision by it to
remove itself from being one of
the first in line for debt
payments when the mine’s
assets are sold off.

Instead, it's placing payments
to be made to former mine
workers and to businesses ahead
of itself on the list of creditors,

Prior. to going -into receiver-
ship, the government had turn-
ed down two other requests for
money — $17 million in mid-
January and then $13 million
toward the end of the month.

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Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 19, 1992 — Page Att

Speaking, at the time of the se-
cond denial, economic develop-
ment minister Dave Zirnheit
said the government wasn’t sure
the money would be enough to
keep the mine open or to satisfy
attempts at a financial -restruc-
turing of the company.

He said Cassiar suffered not
only from an accumulated debt

of $57, million, - ‘but from
technical problems that. arose
when the mine converted from
an open pit to an underground
operation several years ago.

As it was, 100 workers were
laid off from the mine a week
before it went into receivership
because there was enough
asbestos to put through its mill:

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