Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Aug 29/01) - A promise of a meeting with Giant Mine pensioners turned into a quick chat during Industry Minister Brian Tobin's visit to Yellowknife.

The pensioners brought a fake oversized cheque from Giant receiver PricewaterhouseCoopers to get the minister's attention about their concerns over how their pension fund was plundered before the mine owner, Royal Oak, went bankrupt in 1999. As a result, retired mine workers saw their pensions cut back.

Tobin had promised to meet with the retired miners Saturday, but only stopped to talk with them for a couple minutes on his way to a function.

He cancelled the meeting, citing pending legal action on pension claims as the reason for refusing to formally meet with the group.

Canadian Autoworkers Union plant chair Steve Petersen says there are no longer any legal claims on the pension fund. He points out that the federal ministers of Indian affairs and labour had previously met with the pensioners.

The workers wanted to meet with Tobin in his capacity of the minister in charge of the Bankruptcy Act. They wanted to urge him to change the act so that employees are at the top of the list of creditors when companies go belly up, rather than being near the bottom.

On the steps of Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre Tobin said "I wanted to stop and say hello and I'm being advised that I can only act on the basis of legal advice."

At first, employees lost 25 per cent of their pension, but the shortfall has been reduced to nine per cent, said Petersen. The total amount owed to the pension fund is $900,000, he said.

Some of that - about $75 a month, is owed to Kurt Lenigher. His pension now amounts to $750 a month.

"That's not much for 27 years of service," he said before Tobin's arrival.

He told Tobin: "shouldn't we get the money, satisfy the pensioners and then solve the problem later, of the missing money?"