Malcolm Gorrill
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Apr 14/00) - "They're killing them slowly."

That's how the fiancee of a laid off miner describes the problems facing Giant workers there.

"What will happen to these people?" asked Zen Apolinar, whose fiance, Mark Pimlott, was laid off last fall from the bankrupt mine after putting in nearly 12 years of service.

Next month the couple, who are selling their house, will close down Zen's Asian Foods. By the end of May Pimlott and Apolinar will move to Alberta, where they will restart the business.

"My business was doing good before," Apolinar said.

"Since Giant closed, my business has slowed down. What will they (miners) buy? They're out of money."

Like more than 200 others who were laid off last fall from the bankrupt mine, Pimlott has not received any severance pay.

"I figured we'd have some sort of severance pay for all our years of service and hard work," Pimlott said.

"I was counting on that, and that didn't amount to nothing."

Pimlott has spent a lot of time at the Giant Mine Transition Centre and has found it helpful.

"I know most of the people around there. It makes it a little friendlier," he said. "I've taken quite a bit of training."

Pimlott mined for the last three years at Giant, but before that he was in the mill. He said it's been difficult to be looking for work again after nearly 12 years of steady employment, and that he hasn't found any work.

"I'm having a hard time supporting myself in this town," Pimlott said.

"The store is breaking even and it's not paying her (Apolinar) any money, so it's just basically my income supporting us," he said.

"So we're having to move on. Hopefully, with a bigger population, the business can support the both of us," Pimlott said.

"If not, at least maybe it can support her and I can get a job doing something else."

Pimlott is sorry to leave Yellowknife.

"The North has been good to me. I started off a little slow, ended up getting on at the mine. Since then it's been pretty good.

"Now things are a little different. The money isn't there."

Apolinar, who has three children, said she's "really mad" about what's happened.