Electrifying - Hard Creek Nickel

Dease Lake
Highway
Projected power line route
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Bob Quinn Lake
Meziadin Junction
Stewart
Cranberry Junction
N
New Aiyansh
Hazelton
Granisle
Smithers
Terrace
Telkwa
Prince Rupert
Houston
Power boost: The projected route of the long-awaited Highway 37 power line.
Electrifying
Highway 37
THE STORY OF THE NORTHWEST POWERLINE COALITION
BY BYNG GIRAUD
It’s a strange truth that almost a quarter of British Columbia
– the northwest – an area bigger than France, does not have
access to secure, reliable electricity. Most British Columbians,
particularly those in our larger cities, would be shocked to
know that many communities still rely on diesel power, and
that economic growth is hindered in an area with some of
our highest unemployment rates. Some might refer to the
situation as one of the province’s embarrassing secrets.
But the mining sector is painfully aware of the secret.
Exciting northwestern mineral discoveries, many made in
the 1950s and earlier, have not been developed and remain
dormant due primarily to a lack of infrastructure.
In 2004 Donald McInnes, then president of Western
Keltic Mines – proponent of the Kutcho project, now owned
by Capstone Mining Corporation – decided the status quo
was no longer acceptable and began work on what would
become the original Northwest Powerline Coalition.
“It made no sense. Here we had huge wealth and opportunity, yet communities and industry were operating as if
the 21st century was something that happened to everyone
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Ready, set, energize: Highway 37 power is key to development of the giant Turnagain nickel deposit, which will provide up to 900 full-time jobs over a
mine life of more than 24 years.
else,” says McInnes. “We decided it
was time to convince government and
other decision-makers that they were
missing a real opportunity for want of
what is a relatively inexpensive piece
of infrastructure – a power line.”
The power line project seemed
like a reality in the fall of 2007. Few
in British Columbia’s mining and
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exploration communities are unfamiliar with the roller coaster of events
surrounding the Galore Creek project in 2007. In May 2007 B.C. mining leader Teck (then Teck Cominco)
announced it was teaming up with
Galore Creek proponent NovaGold
to build the project. In October of
the same year, B.C. Premier Gordon
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Campbell joined the Galore Creek
team to announce that a publicprivate partnership had been established
to build a northwest transmission line.
The provincial government was committing $250 million and the private
sector was contributing $158 million to
construction of the line from Meziadin
to Bob Quinn.
P h o to gr ap h : Har d Cr e e k Ni ck el C orpora ti on
Wendy Stueck of the Globe and Mail
wrote: “Industry groups that have
spent several years lobbying the government to approve the project were
jubilant Monday, saying the line would
be an ‘economic catalyst’ for northwestern B.C.” AME BC’s then president and CEO Dan Jepsen was quoted
as saying, “Economic, reliable power
is a huge factor for mine development; advanced mineral projects in
the region could account for more
than $3.5 billion in investment and
more than 2,000 jobs if the projects
are built.”
But it was not to be. On November
26, 2007 Teck and NovaGold announced
they were suspending Galore Creek
construction and putting the project
into care and maintenance. The impacts
on the construction of the power line
were immediate. Richard Neufeld,
then minister of energy and mines, said:
“If there are some other consortiums
that come forward with money and
guarantees they will take the electricity,
and all of those kind of things, then of
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course, we’ll sit down and talk with them. But in the meantime, I think it’s the prudent decision by government to say
it’s on hold.”
Neufeld, now a senator, suspended preliminary work on
the power line, telling the Prince George Citizen the project, including the environmental assessment, could not go
ahead until there was a firm commitment on Galore Creek
from NovaGold and Teck Cominco.
What had been jubilation in October turned to dismay.
Northern communities, First Nations and a range of business saw an end to what was quickly becoming a symbol
for economic development in B.C.’s north. Mining and
independent power projects in the region saw their market
capital seriously decline. At this point it looked like electrification of the northwest would have to wait.
But at Mineral Exploration Roundup 2008 in Vancouver,
McInnes’s Northwest Powerline Coalition was reborn.
“We put the word out to whoever would listen or cared,”
says then Mining Association of B.C. (MABC) president
Michael McPhie. “AME BC supplied the room and it was
quickly packed with over 100 people. The politicians were
not as happy, as they felt they were being ganged up on, but
the funny thing was we weren’t even intending for the politicians to be in the room – that was supposed to be later.”
It was Pierre Lebel, chairman of Imperial Metals, who
took the bull by the horns. “We decided to give the whole
thing one last great push,” he says. “To so many of us it was
a ridiculous game of chicken and egg – no power line without a mine or power project, yet no power project or mine
could proceed without the power line. At the very least we
needed to show the market the power line project remained
alive, and the only way to do that was to ensure the environmental assessment, engineering and First Nations
consultation continued.”
A key element of the new coalition was the support of 40
northern communities and regional districts. Through the
Northern Development Initiative Trust, an initial $30,000
was contributed to begin the work required. Other contributions soon followed to pay for travel, conferences, meetings, media relations and report-writing.
For much of 2008 the coalition kept the issue alive. Barely
a week went by in the first half of 2008 when there wasn’t at
least one media report, somewhere in B.C., on the importance
of the power line and the efforts to keep the project alive.
“We knew that the decision-makers in Victoria were getting press clippings from around the province, so even the
briefest of mentions in the smallest media outlets helped,”
says Gavin C. Dirom, president and CEO of AME BC, who
at the time was working for the Mining Association of B.C.
“It was like a constant drip of water – every week a new
radio clip or newspaper article. We must have generated
dozens of stories.”
A highlight was the Minerals North Conference, held
that year in Smithers. Premier Campbell was scheduled to
address the conference and walked into a room with hundreds of people wearing black-and-yellow “Power 37” hats.
Joining the crowd in donning a hat, the premier joked he
might be putting on the most expensive hat ever.
Even more critical to the lobbying effort was an economic justification for the power line. In 2008, the Mining
Association of B.C., operating on behalf of the coalition,
commissioned an economic report.
In September 2008 the coalition released the Report on
the Electrification of the Highway 37 Corridor to considerable
media attention. The report, prepared with the assistance
of Macquarie Bank infrastructure financing experts, pointed
out that a power line from Terrace to Dease Lake “… has
the potential to attract more than $15 billion in investment,
create 10,700 jobs and generate $300 million in annual tax
revenues to governments.”
Shortly after the report’s release, the provincial government moved forward. At the annual meeting of the Union
of British Columbia Municipalities, Premier Campbell
committed $10 million to ensuring the environmental
assessment, engineering and First Nations consultation
would continue while a new partner was sought.
Oddly enough it was the global
recession of 2008 that created an
opportunity to resurrect
the project.
“Convincing the Province to keep the project alive and
in environmental assessment was crucial,” says coalition
partner Ed Beswick of Hard Creek Nickel. “No partner was
going to be found if the project was going to have to start
again from square one. The announcement by the premier
broke the endless cycle of no power line without a partner
and no partner without a power line.”
This victory in hand, in early 2009 the coalition moved
into a new phase of lobbying, with more of a formal structure. Gitxsan Hereditary Chief Elmer Derrick and Northern Development Initiative Trust CEO, the aptly named
Janine North, agreed to co-chair the coalition.
“As northerners we knew we had to work together to get
the attention of decision-makers for a substantial northern
infrastructure project. Remember, we were working at a
time when Olympic infrastructure and large-scale transit
projects loomed large for governments,” says Derrick.
Oddly enough it was the global recession of 2008 that
created an opportunity to resurrect the project. Prior to
the economic downturn of late 2008, no federal program
seemed to fit with the type of project being proposed. But
when Prime Minister Harper launched the Green Infrastructure Fund in May 2009, a number of options emerged.
The fund’s first project was a hydro/transmission project in
Yukon – and with that a precedent was set.
Credit at this point can be given to federal Peace RiverPrince George MP Jay Hill. Though the project wasn’t
even in his riding, Hill took an immediate interest in the
northwest transmission project and the work of the coalition. He quickly lined up support from fellow Conservative
MPs from B.C. and Minister of International Trade Stockwell Day. By September the stage was set.
“We may never know for sure, but as I understand it [Mr.]
Hill personally walked the file over to the prime minister,
who immediately saw the opportunity,” says North. “And
the fact that the prime minister announced the project in
Washington, D.C. following a meeting with U.S. president
Barack Obama really speaks to the potential importance of
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The stacks: Core storage at the Turnagain nickel property.
the project, not just to northern B.C., but to all of
Canada and even North America.”
Prime Minister Harper’s announcement on September 16, 2009 created a flurry of interest across
B.C. Over a dozen organizations put out media
releases praising the project, and over 60 media
stories were generated within the space of five days
– perhaps more media attention than any other
infrastructure announcement in Canada. The coalition and its members were ecstatic.
“From no project to $404 million in two years.
By working together, by including everyone and
by not getting bogged down in process or negativity, the people of northern B.C. will have a new
power line – one that could mean billions in economic development and opportunity for one of
the province’s historically ignored regions,” says
Dave Pernarowski, mayor of Terrace. “I think we
can all be proud of our efforts to see this development happen.”
If construction of the power line and Red Chris
mine both begin in 2010, it’s expected both projects
can be completed in time to plug into each another
– perhaps within three construction seasons in
2013. With all the uncertainty surrounding major
projects in Canada, this timeline is by no means
assured. Yet Northwest Powerline Coalition members would point out that just over two years ago
there was no project at all.
A lot of the players have changed. MABC president McPhie was succeeded by Pierre Gratton
of the Mining Association of Canada, while AME
BC president Jepsen handed the reins over to former MABC vice-president Dirom. The chairmen
of both organizations have changed. Coalition
founder McInnes has since moved on to the independent power business and many of the coalition
partners have been through a tough economic year.
But the coalition was and continues to be a success – a
testament to what happens when industry, communities, First Nations and other players work together
for mutual benefit. For B.C. northerners there is no
other way. ■
Pho t o g rap h : H ard C re e k N i ck el Cor por a t ion
Northwest Powerline Coalition
EXECUTIVE BOARD
Board Members
Gavin C. Dirom
Pierre Gratton
Pierre Lebel
Ed Beswick
General Secretary
Byng Giraud
Co-Chairs:
Chief Elmer Derrick
Janine North
CURRENT MEMBERS
COMMUNITIES
Borough of Wrangell, Alaska and over 40 B.C. communities
FIRST NATIONS AND ABORIGINAL ORGANIZATIONS
Gitxsan Hereditary Chiefs
Tahltan Business Council
Tahltan Development Corporation
MINERAL EXPLORATION AND MINING COMPANIES
Carmax Explorations Ltd.
Copper Fox Metals Inc.
Fortune Minerals Limited
Hard Creek Nickel Corporation
Hawthorne Gold Corp.
NGEx Resources Inc. (formerly Canadian Gold Hunter Corp.)
Paget Resources Corporation
Red Chris Developments – Imperial Metals Corporation
Roca Mines Inc.
Silver Standard Resources Inc.
Western Copper Corporation
ASSOCIATIONS/TRUSTS
Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia (AME BC)
Mining Association of British Columbia (MABC)
Mining Suppliers Association of BC
Northern Development Initiative Trust
EQUIPMENT SUPPLIERS/CONTRACTORS
DJ Drilling
Orica
Tahltan-Tercon Limited
T’senaglobe Media Inc.
Transwest Mining Systems
ENGINEERING HOUSES
Allnorth Consulting
AMEC
Hatch
Knight Piésold Consulting
North American Construction Group
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