VANCOUVER – NDP candidate Bob Simpson’s lack of understanding of B.C.’s mining industry, coupled with the NDP’s reckless, job-killing policies, will put the B.C. mining industry and thousands of family-supporting jobs in rural B.C. at risk, says BC Liberal Energy Minister Blair Lekstrom.
May 5, 2009
VANCOUVER – NDP candidate Bob Simpson’s lack of understanding of B.C.’s mining industry, coupled with the NDP’s reckless, job-killing policies, will put the B.C. mining industry and thousands of family-supporting jobs in rural B.C. at risk, says BC Liberal Energy Minister Blair Lekstrom.
At an all candidates debate in Williams Lake on April 27, Cariboo North NDP candidate Simpson stated: “Under the Campbell government, not one new mine has opened.”
“Williams Lake has a proud mining history and it’s simply unacceptable that NDP candidate Bob Simpson doesn’t even have a basic understanding of B.C.’s mining industry,” said Lekstrom. “To claim that not a single new mine has opened since 2001 is either deliberately dishonest or just another example of Simpson’s complete lack of understanding of a major employer in the region.”
Contrary to Simpson’s claims, 12 metal and coal mines have opened or reopened in B.C. since 2001, including: Lexington-Grenoble, Max Molybdenum, Perry Creek Mine at Wolverine and Brule Mine at the Brazion Property.
“It is time for Carole James and the NDP to stop their dishonest comments, do their homework and actually support the mining industry that employed almost 30,000 British Columbians across the province last year,” says Lekstrom. “While we are all facing a global economic challenge, the mining industry is and will continue to be a critical economic generator for British Columbia.”
According to the PWC Report on The Mining Industry in British Columbia released today, net earnings for B.C.’s mining companies were at their highest level ever in 2008. In fact, since the BC Liberals were elected, gross mining revenues in B.C. have increased by 125 per cent. PWC spokesperson and report author Michael Cinnamond stated: “The performance of the B.C. mining industry amidst a crashing economy in the later part of 2008 was nothing short of outstanding.”
“Clearly B.C.’s mining industry has performed well over the last eight years, thanks in part to lower taxes and a more competitive operating environment introduced by the BC Liberals,” says Lekstrom. “Rather than acknowledging this success, Bob Simpson and the NDP continue to promote the same reckless policies that destroyed B.C.’s mining industry in the 1990s.”
Independent expert analysis of the NDP Platform has confirmed that the NDP’s plan will destroy over 110,000 jobs, many of which are in B.C.’s resource industries – particularly mining.
“It is well known that Bob Simpson has promoted reckless forest polices that the forest industry has said will destroy thousands of jobs,” says Lekstrom. “But Simpson’s new attack on B.C.’s mining industry proves that the NDP have absolutely no plan for the economy other than to destroy jobs and drive private sector investment out of the province.”
