Steelworkers’ president’s ‘vision’ of mining development

Received a sealed envelope today. It was a big white United Steelworkers District 3 envelope with a hand-written note on the front that said, “For Mel from Richard Enjoy — I liked your Saturday column.”

Inside was an eight-page document published in March 2011 and written by Steelworkers Local 7619 president Richard Boyce, who was the subject of the Armchair Mayor this past Saturday. More precisely, his comments about the Ajax mine were the subject.

The paper I received today is entitled “Appropriate Risk?” and does, I assume, represent his current opinion even though it’s now a year old. The first sub-headline inside is “Development with Vision.” Since I wrote Saturday about conflicting visions on the Ajax issue, this eight-pager is an appropriate elaboration on his position.

He can correct me if I’m wrong, but a reading of this manifesto leads to the conclusion that he is strongly in favour of Ajax for economic-benefit reasons, but that we must be careful to extract the greatest community profit possible from it.

“Will we be paid a fair share for a non-renewable resource? Will the Kamloops population benefit as a whole? Is there a plan in place that will maximize the economic benefits available? What will we leave for future generations?” he asks.

All good questions, of course, assuming developing the mine at all is a good thing. Boyce seems to have already made that judgment, and it’s a thumbs up as long as there’s a good dollar in it for Kamloops. “Development with vision means ensuring that all residents will benefit from mining development in Kamloops through the creation of jobs, positive economic spinoffs, increased tax revenue, and a better quality of life.”

In comparison, he pays scant attention to environmental concerns or the issue of location. Ajax, and New Gold, he writes, “seem to me to be the only bright lights on the horizon.”

Which, I am obligated to say, reaffirms my earlier comments about short-term and long-term vision. But I’m thankful for the document, which I hadn’t seen previously.