It doesn’t get more basic than this! A mining
company reinventing itself, competing aggressively to stay relevant
in a world market it once dominated.
A company like Bell Canada getting used to new
realities.
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| name="valign" top > MICHAEL
ATKINS President, Laurentian Media |
Inco has to be tough. It has to be smart. It has
to make changes. It has to be ruthless or its Sudbury operations
may not survive the next downturn in nickel prices.
Inco lives in a mining community that is running
out of nickel. It lives in a mining community now sharing the
Canadian spotlight with Voisey’s Bay and has a half sister called
Goro who nobody has met.
This is a mining community that desperately needs
to renew itself, notwithstanding the current price of commodities.
It is a mining community that shockingly lost 10,000 people in less
than 10 years and continues to lose a generation.
It must fight any job loss like a trapped animal
knowing it is on a slippery slope whether or not than means an
unproductive Inco, or one that is so productive that nothing is
left but technology.
In Alberta, that socialist capital of resource
management, they get royalties for a rainy day. In Sudbury we get
productivity.
When these decisions are made, there is a gut
check all round. Predictable things happen. The opposition opposes.
That’s easy. No risk there.
The union huffs and puffs, and so they must,
although, of course, that is easy if you don’t need to find a
business solution.
Institutions look in the mirror. The chamber of
commerce blinks and realizes this isn’t simple.
Newspapers that have to sell ads and sponsorships
look in the mirror. Politicians who live in a world of spin can be
labelled for a generation if they aren’t careful. Will there be
courage or will there be fear? We always learn more about ourselves
at times like these.
The hard part is to be smart and not stay trapped
in our prejudices.
Taking any profitable value-added process out of
a community that is exploiting a resource must be opposed, but not
blindly. Not with rhetoric. Not with anger. With reason. With
intelligence. With a willingness to look at broader
solutions.
Every single possible option must be explored.
Inco has an obligation to share options with the community before
final decisions are made and to make decisions with the community
in mind.
If investing in the new copper refinery is
uneconomical, maybe it wouldn’t be with some government
investment.
Is that preposterous? Maybe. Is Bombardier
preposterous? Is General Motors preposterous? Maybe a new nickel
refinery could bring other companies’ precious metals to Sudbury
instead of us sending it somewhere else.
If it makes no sense, then it makes no sense. But
that should not be the end of it.
The company has a responsibility, a social
contract if you will, to do everything in its power to empower this
community. For 100 years Sudburians have been a part of Inco’s
international success. It’s where it all started.
The city has not been overpaid for its
contribution. If not a copper refinery, then more research and
development. Why should research and development live in Oakville
anyway? Opening more mines is not adding value. It is capacity
expansion. It is not the same thing.
The politicians in Sudbury have an obligation to
understand business reality and to do everything in their power to
empower the company to be productive and competitive-but not
without a quid pro quo.
We must build trust. If we don’t get smart
together-we die together. Let us begin to work together. That means
no political grandstanding on either side. It means listening and
acting together with courage and respect.
Michael Atkins is the president of Laurentian
Media. He can be reached at[email protected]
