Doug Ashbury
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 14/00) - The restart of Echo Bay Mines' Lupin gold mine in Nunavut will not benefit Yellowknife, according to a union spokesperson.

In, fact, says Canadian Auto Workers Local 2304, plant chair Steve Petersen, it may have the opposite effect.

Petersen says he knows of only four or five Local 2304 members that were hired by Echo Bay to work at Lupin.

And they plan to leave Yellowknife and live in Edmonton, he adds.

"Why wouldn't they? It's the same wage at a third of the costs (to live down south)," he said.

"We're disappointed. We've got a workforce recognized for its ability to lower (gold production) costs," he said, speaking of workers from the former Giant Mine.

"There is a socio-economic agreement. I was wondering how come that has been neglected."

Petersen also said the union realizes that Lupin is located in Nunavut but access to the mine site is through the NWT.

He suggests the GNWT might think about some type of transportation tax against Echo Bay for using NWT roads.

"I think this is a real concern. This is why control of Northern resources is so important. It's shameful: we don't get any benefits. It's a fly-in/fly-out operation," Yellowknife Centre MLA Jake Ootes said.

"They will use our highway system to transport fuel, beating up the Ingraham Trail. It's a negative for us."

Ootes said taxing truck traffic is excessive but the GNWT does "need to talk" to Echo Bay.

Calls by Yellowknifer to Lupin mine manager Bill Danyluk in Edmonton and to Echo Bay's head office in Colorado went unreturned.

Under a fly-in/fly-out operation, Edmonton will benefit the most from an operating Lupin mine. That's where workers will board the company jet for the trip to the mine site.

Echo Bay mothballed Lupin in January 1998 due to low gold prices.

As for the socio-economic agreement, signed in 1981 by then Echo Bay president John Zigarlick and GNWT cabinet member Tom Butters, both Petersen and Ootes believe the company is not living up to the spirit of the document. Zigarlick is now with Nuna Logistics while Butters, now retired, lives in B.C.

Listed below are some of the items which make up the agreement which is actually a memorandum of understanding with no penalties.

• The company will have a full-time employment co-ordinator in the NWT.
• The company will first search the NWT for suitable qualified candidates
• The Kitikmeot Inuit Association said they initially expect 25 jobs for residents of Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk with the possibility of more later
• Echo Bay plans to hire an aboriginal from the NWT as a recruitment/counselling officer.
• The company will utilize local Northern business services to the greatest degree possible where price, delivery capability and quality are competitive. Where these conditions exist, the company will award contracts to businesses located in the NWT, Alberta, Canada, foreign -- in that order.
• The company will make information about its requirements to supplies and services for the construction and operation of the mine known to local businesses through chambers of commerce, other business organizations and to individual businesses as requested.
• The socio-economic action plan filed by the company and agreed to by the GNWT will be reviewed jointly and reaffirmed annually with changes included as required and jointly agreed.