“When I finished college in 1970 I went straight to Thompson, Manitoba; there were three underground mines and one open pit mine there. The mine there was a nickel mine with secondary products of cobalt and precious metals. I worked underground for a little while then eventually worked in all areas of the mine, so I understand the whole process very well.

“Because of my technical education I ended up in a laboratory environment. This was a dirty, dusty lab environment that had sulphur gas going through it all the time and it was the same temperature inside as it was outside. Actually, it was hotter in the summer and colder in the winter than it was outside. Thankfully, due to the department I was in, I did not have to spend much time in that building. I started doing sampling of the different parts of the system.  I worked in the crushing building, the smelter, the refinery and the grinding mill.

“The mine at Thompson was part of the United Steel Workers of America (USWA), and I was on their union executive until I was promoted to staff when, of course, I was bumped from the union. I ended up being the foreman in the department I worked in.

“I went into process technology. That was part of research and development in the refinery and then the mill. We did research into refining and running the process more efficiently.
Because I had a technical background I was hired by an open pit coal mine in Edson, Alberta, called Luscar Sterco. I built the laboratory, equipped it, staffed it and supervised it for three years. I was then promoted into the operations side of the mine, and later became the supervisor of employee relations. I hired 126 people for that mine, and looked after discipline, the grievance procedure, and contract negotiations on behalf the company. I had union experience negotiating contracts, so this was a different perspective for me; I have seen it from both sides of the fence.

“I went from that job to Labour Relations Supervisor and did mostly the contracts and transportation. We ended up building the road eighty kilometers to the site; our budget had been eight point eight million per year for helicopters, and you have to sell a lot of coal to cover that. It ended up being about two million per year for transportation; we hired buses to transport the employees back and forth.

“I have a different perspective, altogether. As far as mining goes here, I have always known a lot of people who work in the mines at NVI and Hillsborough, staff and hourly, and have always gotten along very well with them.  I think that when I was elected to City Council a lot of the people working in the mines in the Campbell River area knew my background and where I came from, and contributed to my support. They knew that I was actually ‘there’ and had a mining background. People I do not even know stop and talk to me on the street about what is going on in mining. Mining in British Columbia, in general, is really on the upswing right now; in the last four years the difference has been like night and day. Zero was happening five years ago, and now exploration in the province is just going crazy, and it is the same with the oil and gas industry. In mining, everyone is planning on increasing their manpower. Quinsam Coal hired a lot of young, local guys in the last year, which is great for our community; from a city perspective it is what we want to see. We want to see our young people going to high school here, maybe to college here, and then get jobs in the mines or in other local resource based industries.  We know that in the next ten years there will be thousands of new employment opportunities for mining tradesmen.  Our City and our colleges have to start planning for this now.

“The mining process is a lot different from what it was thirty five years ago when I started in mining. The worker is so up on safety now; if his partner is working unsafely, he just will not work with him, which is smart. The environment is a lot cleaner in the mines as well; it is still cold and wet but the air is cleaner.

“Mining is a very big part of our community; we really depend on this industry in our community for so much. Both local companies are good corporate citizens in more ways than one. They do not just contribute to the community; we ensure that they are good operators from an environmental perspective.

“Quinsam Coal applied for amalgamation with Campbell River in 2004. The city felt it was a good idea for many reasons; for one, it increased the tax income for the city and that helps keep taxes down for everyone. We do not provide fire protection services because they are so far out and have their own. Many of the people who work out at Quinsam live in Campbell River and pay taxes into our community, have kids who attend our schools and use the community facilities, so Quinsam Coal is important to our city. We have a lot of good things to say about them, and hope their success continues, and other mining operations look at Campbell River as a place to do business.”