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Hailed by premier as jobs coup for BC, coal mine now a lightning rod for union, enviro, First Nations anger.
Premier Christy Clark announced $1.36 billion in mining investments by China on Nov. 11 of last year. Photo: BC government.
Premier Clark touts mining as her jobs machine. But a lot of those hires may be foreign say eager firms and concerned unions.
Foreign workers a poor fix for Olympic overruns say unions.
Temp workers say they fear retribution if identities known.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Nearly a year ago, B.C. Premier Christy Clark was clearly having a good day on her trade mission to China. In an exultant press release datelined Beijing, Nov. 11, 2011, the premier announced a substantial infusion of Chinese capital for two new projects in the B.C. coal mining industry, an investment that would, she said, result in thousands of new jobs. The press release opened on a triumphant note:
"Premier Christy Clark today announced financing worth $1.36 billion for two major investments which will eventually create over 6,700 jobs. 'This investment clearly shows how confident China is in British Columbia's world-class mining resources and strong investment climate,' said Premier Christy Clark. 'These two projects support our BC Jobs Plan and according to the companies will create over 6,700 jobs and other economic benefits for British Columbians.'"
What the provincial leader didn't mention was that most of the direct mining jobs would go to temporary foreign workers brought to mining camps in the northeast of the province from China. Now, as British Columbians get a closer look at the deal's implications, the government is facing criticism from a local union that says the use of temporary foreign workers will deny jobs to Canadians and expose the temporary workers to exploitation. Environmentalists are piling on, saying that the climate destabilizing coal should remain in the ground because of its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. And a local First Nation isn't budging in its firm rejection of the mine.
On Oct. 10, the Vancouver Sun's Peter O'Neil revealed, to readers who had missed an earlier Tyee story on the matter, that the majority of the mining jobs created by the new investment announced last year would be filled by Chinese miners brought into Canada under the highly controversial temporary foreign worker program.
The Sun reported that up to 2,000 of the 2,800 jobs to be created at four new mines would go to Chinese nationals.
The first two hundred Chinese miners are expected to arrive in B.C. within weeks, with the balance expected to arrive over a matter of years as four mines are developed in northeast B.C.
Gov't explanations termed 'B.S.' by union
B.C.'s Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training Pat Bell told CBC radio on Oct. 10 that the jobs taken by Chinese workers would be short term, lasting only six to eight months, and were necessary because Canada did not have enough skilled miners available.
"This particular set of skills is one that we'll have to build. It doesn't really exist in Canada," Bell said. "While we are very good at large, open pit mines, we are not very good at underground coal mines," he added.
Steve Hunt, Western Canada director for the United Steelworkers, called government explanations for bringing in the temporary workers "bullshit." He said the government's key goal here was "cheap labour."
"We could easily find or train the needed miners here in Canada," Hunt told the Tyee on Friday. "We have been training underground miners in this country for over a century, and we could have workers ready to go in less than two months."
Hunt emphasized that his union had no quarrel with the Chinese miners themselves.
"They're just trying to make a living, just like my members," Hunt said. "Our quarrel is with the temporary foreign worker program that brings in workers, drives down wages, uses them up like spare parts and then ships them back home."
Hunt told The Tyee that he and his union took issue with a Tory government he said was constantly increasing the movement of temporary labour into Canada under conditions that exposed the "guest workers" to exploitation, drove down Canadian wages and working conditions and denied the foreign workers a chance to settle and make a life in Canada. He said that he expected the Chinese workers would be paid 10 to 15 dollars an hour less than unionized miners in Canada.
'Temp workers likely to be exploited': anti-racism advocate
Hunt also warned that the vulnerable foreign workers would not be able to enforce even the minimal protections available here for non-unionized workers.
"Imagine one of these Chinese miners trying to enforce health and safety or hours of work protections under Canadian law," Hunt said. "He'd be on a plane home the next day."
Hunt said that his union has heard from many temporary foreign workers across the country who are afraid to complain about how they are being exploited by Canadian employers, for fear of losing their jobs.
Harsha Walia, an activist with No One is Illegal, a Canadian grassroots migrant justice group, agrees with Hunt that the temporary foreign worker program fosters worker exploitation.
"I think it is really positive that the Steelworkers are alive to the danger of anti-Chinese racism in this context," Walia told the Tyee. "That's a big improvement on sometimes racist responses from trade unionists to foreign workers in the past. Mr. Hunt is right when he says that temporary workers are likely to be exploited."
Walia said that the broader context for the debate about foreign coal miners is a major shift in the Canadian workforce being engineered by the Harper government.
"Temporary foreign workers now represent the largest group of immigrants to Canada," she said. "The temporary worker programs are the flip side of outsourcing. Instead of sending Canadian work to the Third World to chase cheap labour, the programs bring in immigrant workers to work cheap and precariously in Canada. It just lowers the wage floor for everyone. We have a federal government that is committed to making labour more 'flexible' and profits higher for their friends in business."
Save climate, leave coal alone: activist
Kevin Washbrook, an activist with the environmental group StopCoal.ca, takes a different view from those held by union and government spokespeople. For Washbrook, the debate should really be about how to best and most effectively shut down current coal mines while maintaining a moratorium on opening up any new ones.
"We need to stop mining and burning coal if we are going to avoid a climatic disaster. Instead of forging ahead with blinders on and ignoring reality, we need to have a serious conversation as a society about how we're going to phase out coal mining and export and build a more sustainable economy. Here's our chance," he told The Tyee via email.
Washbrook noted that one of the primary responses that his group got from government when it called for a moratorium on new coal mines and the phase out of existing mines is that this will have an undue impact on people employed in the mining industry.
"The fact that Canadian Dehua is planning on bringing in up to 2,000 temporary Chinese workers to run their new mines puts the lie to that argument," he said.
"The obvious goal here is to get the dirty fuel out of the ground and over to Asia, regardless of the cost and benefits for B.C. and the planet. Rather than scrambling to import temp workers or open new mining programs at colleges we should be heaving a collective sigh, thankful that we've been handed an easy out for what will be the biggest transition we've ever had to make as a society. Time to move on!"
No One is Illegal's Walia agrees that environmental concerns need to be addressed in the coal mining debate.
"Many environmental activists recognize, as we do, that it is important to protect the environment and important to protect workers. That is the context in which we ought to be making our policy decisions," she said.
Local First Nation firmly opposed
When Premier Clark made her announcement of the China-backed coal mines from Beijing last year, resistance came swiftly from the West Moberly First Nation whose territory includes the site of one project, the Gething mine.
"A big part of the benefit will accrue to First Nations," Clark assured at the time, "It's just a question of negotiating how much."
But West Moberly Chief Roland Willson's stance was firm. "No ifs, ands or buts," he told the Globe and Mail. "The mine will have to find another place to go."
Willson made it clear that his people weren't opposed to development. But this project was slated to be situated right next to the band's summer camp. "The impacts of this mine to our way of life cannot be mitigated," stated Willson, "so our only option is to say no."
With labour, environmentalists and the local First Nation united in opposition to their source of employment, 2,000 Chinese temporary workers are headed down a deep hole of controversy dug by B.C.'s premier. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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Bob Watts
31 weeks ago
Clark hates 50% of people in BC.
Yes Crusty hates SOCIALISTS (NDP), which is about 50% of the BC population.
Yet Clark loves the COMMUNISTS.
Give your head a shake Crusty.
My friend, a coal truck driver in a Northern (Chinese mine) was just laid off.
NEVER NEVER BLAME A BC CITIZEN FOR BEING LAZY AND COLLECTING A WELFARE CHEQUE.
Sorry the phrase "Proud Canadian" no longer applies to me.
Lets train our people to take these jobs, it's the intelegent thing to do.
Hey Crusty how about putting your son of welfare while a Chinese slaves dig up BC's wealth and ships it to a comunist country.
This is the beginning of the end of Canada!
Feverish
31 weeks ago
Time to rebuild
Start with trust - honesty, accountability, respect. How can anyone in this country avoid becoming cynical when it comes to any level of government?
Enough spin! Enough bull$h!t! Have we had enough yet? Getting close to the tipping point?!
Hugh
31 weeks ago
BC's objective is to reduce
BC's objective is to reduce BC's greenhouse gas emissions
"(iii) by 2020 and for each subsequent calendar year to at least 33% less than the level of those emissions in 2007,"
From the 2010 Clean Energy Act:
http://www.leg.bc.ca/39th2nd/1st_read/gov17-1.htm#section18
The coal won't be burned in BC but it's the same atmosphere.
SharingIsGood
31 weeks ago
_____1.36 Billion in Financing for Foreign Workers
"Premier Christy Clark today announced financing worth $1.36 billion for two major investments which will eventually create over 6,700 jobs."
Not only are they getting the raw resources! not only are the workers foreigners! the financing for all of this is being guaranteed on the backs of BC citizens with imaginary money that increases our cost of borrowing in Canada.
Let's have an election now, please!
Fiat lux
31 weeks ago
The minute anybody dares to
The minute anybody dares to question the sale of Canada to China and the importation of Chinese workers, he or she is accused of racism. Which is the convenient propaganda trying BS to silence critics of the crime wave against the public.
There's no anti Chinese or any other form of racism in Canada, except in the imagination of pimp politicians and for the use of propaganda by professional mind benders in service of the global corporate mafia.
There was Chairman Harper in the news preaching against the human rights records of some African dictators, while selling Canada off to the communists. In secret.
One has to wonder, whether he would be such a critic against the Africans if they'd come with imaginary capital in their hands, buying up Canada ? My feeling is that he and his merry gang of "conservatives", would lay the red carpet out for them and never a word against their human rights records.
Meanwhile, drilling crews are all over the Cariboo, mapping out future wall to wall mines for our "wealth creating foreign investors", otherwise known as the Communist Party of China.
What our blundering idiot politicians, so called "economists" and "conservatives" can not comprehend is that foreign investors bring nothing to this, or to any other country.
When you have resources, you have capital, because the country can "create" it legally and locally. Period.
Yes, that is still a monetary debt, but it can be repaid pretty fast. On the other hand foreign investment is a perennial debt, because it sells the country away from under the citizens' feet, forever, and demands extra privileges citizens don't have.
Now try to explain facts and logic to "conservatives" and "people of faith", no to mention so called "economists"
Ed Deak.
Grouchy
31 weeks ago
Chinada
Crustys " families first " plan is working just like it should. If you live in China !!
wiley
31 weeks ago
Gulag BC
China hasn't given up slavery yet, and it's finding that it's now quite easy to set up new slave camps around the world. Slimeball politicians in "the free west" seem to be falling over each other in the rush to shake hands with the slave traders.
If we don't change direction, you know where this game is going.
Van Isle
31 weeks ago
I read about the Chinese
I read about the Chinese miners coming to BC about 6 months ago on Laila Yuile's blog. She was tipped-off by some bloke from Prince George when our beloved leader was doing a grand tour around the hinterlands spouting-off about jobs. I still can't understand why it takes the mass-media so long to report this type of BS when the information is out there and is common knowledge by the locals.
Skywalker
31 weeks ago
Excellent posts.
I agree with all the points made and Ed Deak's point about trying to stifle debate by accusations of racism are right on.
Today I heard on the news that China was in trouble because there were too many men and not enough women as a result of the practise of gender selection. In a way it is almost funny but I wondered how Harper with his objection to any foreign aid that teaches planned parenthood justifies such a regime. Christy Clark well she just doesn't have a clue and is only doing the work of Gwynn Morgan. It is another bit of evidence that their whole notion of how to build a strong country is twisted.
Marysue52
31 weeks ago
scab labour abounds
We workers have had our asperations sidestepped by imported foreign workers (scabs). They can go home to their balmy homes and live well with their prices being so low there, while we still have heating bills, but no jobs to pay for them here. We practice birth control diligently in our country to NOT populate ourselves beyond the land's ability to provide. We need not take in the heedless overpopulation of other countries, nor their scab labour which ruins our workers' fights for liveable wages. I feel for foreigners' poverty, but that's a problem they have to solve in their own countries. Poverty here is worse because it's freezing cold and you can't grow food all year in most of Canada. Foreign workers, go home! We need jobs ourselves.
Birch
31 weeks ago
"When it comes to money, we're all of the same religion."
Substitute "politics" for "religion" in the above quote and you get the attitude of most governments in power in Canada today. Spurred on by visions of sugar plum dollars, corporate lobbyists push the foreign workers program for all it's worth.
Liberal? Conservative? Democrat? Republican? The words don't have any meaning any more.
Ethics? Loyalty to one's country and its citizens? Those concepts are melting like the arctic sea ice.
BUT, the chance to make big money on the back of what can be construed as more or less slave labour? It seems everyone in a possession to profit understands that well enough and is eager to reach for the brass ring.
Deplorable.
gadrogeek
31 weeks ago
Bring back the Navvies and Coolies!
The "Honourable" Pat Bell is going around the province, especially in the media circuit, and telling us how wonderful the job opportunities are and that we need to import more people with trades because our education system isn't supplying them.
(This is a man who fully supported, if not helped create, the "training wage" for our youth!)
Hogwash! Why doesn't he get his colleagues, Shirley Bond and Ms Clark, both former Education Ministers, to actually improve the high school curriculum to include "real" training, including apprenticeships? Stop trying to fit students, who clearly have other talents and interests, into the academic stream. Change the graduation requirements!
And if Mr. Harper succeeds in signing on with the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership), this discussion will be much bigger than the coal mining industry.
Please read these.
http://economyincrisis.org/content/15322
http://www.3news.co.nz/Canada-joins-TPP-talks/tabid/421/articleID/272191/Default.aspx
This will replace "The Temporary Foreign Worker Program", making the availability of below minimum wage workers permanent!
Very sad and disturbing. Wake up, Canada!
Won't it be great when corporations can dictate to our government how things will be?
Greg Shea (Lake Cowichan)
Fiat lux
31 weeks ago
Makes no difference in our
Makes no difference in our wonderful system where the money, the power and the control goes, who benefits, it is all GDP in the warped minds of our politicians and so called "economists" and we're OK.
If all the benefits go abroad, while a million stand in the foodbank lines here , it is all "growth" and GDP. Ask any economist.
Wonderful system !
Ed Deak.
Fiat lux
31 weeks ago
Makes no difference in our
Makes no difference in our wonderful system where the money, the power and the control goes, who benefits, it is all GDP in the warped minds of our politicians and so called "economists" and we're OK.
If all the benefits go abroad, while a million stand in the foodbank lines here , it is all "growth" and GDP. Ask any economist.
Wonderful system !
Ed Deak.
A Voice
31 weeks ago
Enabling foreign workers to
Enabling foreign workers to be provided by the foreign investors putting British Columbians out of work...treason
Giving ownership of and selling off our resources to Chinese interests in the oil sands...greater treason
What the heck is wrong with the leaders of our great nation. When did become okay to send out our raw resources like logs and further kneecapping Canadian families.
When are we going to have some real leadership in this country?
Nations want our resources, this is plain to see, lets get a little more for them instead of fire saling to meet the wants of current gorenments...where are the senior civil servant in all of this, where is the accountability? Where is the national energy plan? I have an idea..how about Canadians FIRST?
Traitorous sellouts is the only way to describe the current lot of politicians. both federally and provincially.
Waiting for a real leader of a nation is like awaiting a messiah, you just know its never going to happen.
steelchef
31 weeks ago
Democracy - How it works!
As I approach my 70th year reflection on my time shows a continuous decline in voter participation and the values of our previous democracy.
Darth Harper is the final chapter on corruption plus; loss of personal freedom and choice. Crusty is just his agent.
You all can bitch and complain your brains out but action is what's needed. We all need to encourage the younger generations to become involved and exersize their franchises. Voter apathy got us here and will drive us further down the path to Americanism.
Kreditanstalt
31 weeks ago
Realism strikes...
Just how long can Canuckistan's union wages remain far, far above the prevailing rates elsewhere in the world while we are in competition with other, more cost-efficient jurisdictions?
If some of our vast panoply of wage support, moral hazard-creating social programs were eliminated perhaps the locals would be spurred to work for more competitive wages or upgrade their skills on their own. And perhaps the mining companies would be forced to do some on-the-job training.
Blame should be cast on fat-and-sassy Canadians, on the lazy companies and on the leftist social welfare policies of past governments. When you endlessly manipulate, price-fix and subsidize what should be a free market in wages you inevitably get blowback. And price yourself out.
snert
31 weeks ago
Kreditanstalt
Ummm, and just who are 'Canuckistan" competitors in the mining industry? Get real!
If these "temporary" workers are not being paid going rate for doing whatever it is that Canadian workers lack the skill to do then their employers are just making a mockery of the only quasi legitimate reason for hiring them in the first place.
The unions have every right to complain. This is not just a union issue either. As mentioned by others it cuts deep into the fabric of Canadian society and should not be tolerated.
Feverish
31 weeks ago
Blitz
Omnibus legislation in the politburo, union-busting, austerity, corporate give aways, vilification of caring citizens, depopulation of the resource-rich regions, secretive trade deals and factory farming in the key of E coli.
Not sure if this is the crescendo but it sure feels like the corporate-politico machine is firing everything at us and every conceivable target so that we do not have time to focus our response to the rape and pillage of our land and livelihood.
Perry
31 weeks ago
Chris Hedges: "It's always
Chris Hedges: "It's always the ruling elite that determines the parameters for resistance or rebellion. And that means something else is coming. The system has not been able to respond in a rational way ... And because of that, we're in deep, deep trouble. So I think all of our hope now has to be invested in acts of civil disobedience."
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=8887
"Is Anarchism an Idea Whose Time Has Come?"
... If people are more or less willing to submit to hierarchical authority when it distributes resources a little more equitably than laissez faire capitalism, what happens when the hierarchy no longer throws a few bones our way?
Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward demonstrate in their classic text Poor People’s Movements that opportunities for popular insurgencies to emerge are relatively rare and usually coincide with “profound changes in the larger society” (p7). The decline of industrial society and impending collapse of global capitalism is, and will continue to, produce social dislocation and misery, but this rupture with the past also creates the space to build something new; perhaps something more equitable? More freeing? More caring? After all, industrial society produced its own forms of misery: boredom, conformity, stifling of creativity, and alienation to name a few.
“We can only hope,” Orlov writes,"that, with the waning of the industrial age, anarchism is poised for a rebirth, gaining relevance and acceptance among those wishing to opt out of the industrial scheme ahead of time instead of finding themselves pinned down under its wreckage."
http://www.alternet.org/visions/anarchism-idea-whose-time-has-come
Kreditanstalt
31 weeks ago
@Snert
Snert says a free market in labor "should not be tolerated."
And why is a lower labor cost not a "legitimate reason for hiring them"?
Who's afraid of competition?
I largely detest this Harper government as much as I disdain any socialist administration...but this is one good step.
Canadians have to one day begin to understand that this economic jurisdiction is not an island.
Frank
31 weeks ago
Worst yet
I can't believe any Canadian governemnt would give another nation our resources as well as our jobs.
Its bad enough when a foreign company gets the resources to send back home and the profits from the extraction, but at least we get some jobs. Now we don't even get that.
What is the point of this deal?
cboo44
31 weeks ago
OMG !! Foreign Workers !!
Chrispy Clark, the Clown of BC Politics, probably did not actually READ the deal. Probably couldn't have understood it, if she had.
Aside from that, BC Mining operations are recruiting workers from offshore ALL THE TIME. Why? Because none of our entitled youth and graduates with "social sciences degrees"(economic worth = ZERO) feel they should have to leave the ever-so comfy SW corner of BC to go make a living in the wilds of "Beyond Hope".
Teck requires 200 people to fill jobs in Trail, high wages, low living costs, they have to import workers to fill the positions, average wage? $30.00 an hour.
Coal operations in the Elk Valley are requiring 2500 workers this year and over the next two years. Any interests in BC ? Nope. The unemployed and under employed would rather demand the "somebody do something", instead of getting off their ass and going to work.
A Voice
31 weeks ago
Kreditanstalt
"Canadians have to one day begin to understand that this economic jurisdiction is not an island."
Of course it is.
We are a sovereign nation who have the right to determine who works in our country.
The govt is not our bosses, it is NOT up to them to determine whats good or bad for us. We are the govt, thye are us, and they do not have the right to make decisions with out proper consulation. Backroom deals with foreign nationals is not their right or any one elses, in fact I put forward that this behavior has ended in the deaths(literally)of many members of govt in the nations of the world past present future.
Frank
31 weeks ago
cboo44
Why not ask the unemployed if they'd be interested in a job? I know kids in their 20s and 30s who'd love to move to Trail for $30 an hour. But no one has ever offered them the chance.
Also, don't tell them they need 10 degrees for that $30 an hour and if they don't have them then you'll go hire foreigners who probaby have none.
Skywalker
31 weeks ago
kredit asks...
"Just how long can Canuckistan's union wages remain far, far above the prevailing rates elsewhere in the world"
Well if China is the standard then I hope it will be for a very long time. Imagine the blow to our economy if every worker's wages were that of a Chinese worker. How much money would they spend? How good would that be for economy? What small business locally would not feel the pinch.
Sometimes downright silliness is expressed and an idea not thought through. This is one of them. Why would we let a country with one of the poorest human rights records determine our standard of living or our labour standards. The mind just boggles at the insanity.
PHOEBE
31 weeks ago
Chinese Coal Mining Safety Record
Why is there no mention anywhere of China's atrocious coal mining safety record? This year alone to October 11th there have been 411 deaths and 124 missing. Is this part of the package of 'special skills' that Canadian miners do not have? Let's get Christy underground and have her get a first hand look at what it takes to extract resources. Perhaps train her on a jackleg or jumbo. She may gain some appreciation for Canadian miners and not write them off so easily!!
Bob Watts
31 weeks ago
Greed is what we voted 4
This has nothing to do with how many did not vote!
Fact is we voted in greed!
We wanted a capatalist government and we got it in spades!
We wanted low tax and business first.
We are a mindless society, makes me want to vomit!
anne cameron
31 weeks ago
It's telling
that the several governments in this province who have overseen the school curriculum have made sure and certain the history of coal mining on Vancouver Island isn't properly covered. The number of dead and crippled isn't taught.
Coal extraction ANYWHERE is dirty, dangerous, and ugly. Coal miners are, almost always , underpaid and poorly protected.
Years ago I saw a documentary "Harlan County, USA", about coal mining, coal miners, and coal companies. And nothing much has changed since that film was made, except the machines are bigger and now they're gnawing off the tops of mountains and killing off the watersheds.
And of course the only real reason they want "guest workers" is because they're paying them peanuts! They could teach just about anybody what they need to know in about a month and a half. But , of course, you'd need a proper apprenticeship programme to do that.
Coal stinks from extraction to consumption.
But I bet the NDP won't tell them to pack their duffels and go home! It's munny munny munny...in a few pockets...pity not in the workers pockets but it was ever thus...
Frank
31 weeks ago
Kredit
I agree with Skywalker and snert, sometimes your idiocy is beyond the pale.
frances
31 weeks ago
It's not about who's
It's not about who's following which rules in business or labour, or which set of moral or ethical principles we should follow. It's about survival.
Most people find it more comfortable to look the other way, hoping they're dead before the shit hits the fan whether it's global warming or the enslavement of Canada.
A society that practises infanticide and eats tidbits of endangered species to satisfy their medieval urges obviously doesn't follow any rules that we recognize.
Worse yet, when we call them on these points we are told we are not being culturally sensitive.
jdscott650
31 weeks ago
Career Trek
It is surprising that the B.C. Government has not included coal miners as a Northern B.C. career opportunity on their new website Career Trek ,especially as there is such a demand for workers
Kreditanstalt
31 weeks ago
@Frank,
Whether "my idiocy" is "beyond the pale" or not is irrelevant.
We all know that, with our high-priced labour and resultant low productivity, Canada cannot raise or even maintain today's living standards...unless it is able to compete with the rest of the world on COST.
It's NOT a good thing, it will lead to more income disparity and it will tear apart many Canadian institutions. And most people, in their consumption patterns, savings rates and borrowing habits, are woefully ill-prepared for ithis.
I feel that lower living standards ARE coming, no matter which parties, leaders or policy tweaks we see. But it will be cathartic and will, in the end, make us a more vibrant, international, open-minded and competitive people.
Let's start adjusting now.
Frank
31 weeks ago
Kredit
You've got it bass-ackwards.
Our "high-priced" labour as you put it IS the reason we have the high standard of living we do. If our workers got paid less, guess what? Their standard of living would decline.
Its pretty darn simple.
Kredit : "I feel that lower living standards ARE coming"
So do I. But I don't see any positives in it. Nor do I see how it would make us more "international" or anything else on your list. You'd have to explain how.
Also, I don't see "competitive" as being a positive. Competitiveness means working harder for less. That isn't a positive.
What a lower standard of living will do for us is make us poorer in all ways, that's about it.
frank2
31 weeks ago
If there was ever a case, on
If there was ever a case, on economic, social or environmental grounds, to reject a project, it is the development of new coal mines (or expansion of output of existing ones) using imported temporary labour employed by foreign capital. When will the NDP recognise this, and come up with sustainable strategies? I don't expect the LIberals or tories even understand the point.
Kreditanstalt
31 weeks ago
@Frank,
How can Canada's "high-priced labour" continue to find customers in a competitive world which produces the same stuff as we do, plus more, far more economically?
Answer me that - without saying "We produce different stuff" (we DON'T), "We are more efficient" (do customers care when we cost twice as much?) or "our stuff is better" (coal is coal, raw logs are raw logs)...
Or maybe you can try, "Our customers are willing to pay MORE for OUR stuff" without explaining why anyone would do that...
It's hopeless...we're being priced out of world markets little by little.
Frank
31 weeks ago
Kredit
Maybe they can, maybe they can't. But the point is, if they can't then their standard of living will decline and so will the standard of living for all the people who rely on those people spending money.
Can you point to a single economist that thinks the road to prosperity for a country lies in reducing wages for the workers of that country?
Because I never hear even right-wing politicians calling for a lower standard of living as the path to prosperity. If you know of politicians or economists who think a decline in the median wage is good, let me know.
Frank
31 weeks ago
Correcting false assumptions...
Kredit : "We produce different stuff" (we DON'T), "We are more efficient" (do customers care when we cost twice as much?)
Actually if we're more efficient it means the product is cheaper. Let's say Cdn Union Worker A gets paid $100 an hour and using modern tech produces 200 widgets in that hour.
Whereas Chinese Worker B get $1 an hour and produces 1 widget.
That means the "high paid" union guy produces widgets more efficiently. Custoemrs will buy the high-paid guy's stuff because they're half the price of the cheap labour guy's.
Kredit : or "our stuff is better" (coal is coal, raw logs are raw logs)...
Not true, both logs and coal are graded. All logs and all coal are NOT the same. And besides, when we have coal and logs and the other guy doesn't there is no reason to give them our coal and logs. But then I assume you see nothing wrong with BC letting foreigners take our resources without even having to fight a war?
Fiat lux
31 weeks ago
Funny thing, good
Funny thing, good "conservatives" never complain about the multimillion salaries of executives, or the overcapitalized industries where the vast majority of the benefits are going to "investors" and out of the country.
How much does Wal-Mart take out every day from the pockets of their underpaid Canadian workers and the sucker public who shop there ?
Then the hundreds of other foreign owned stores, oil etc. companies stripping the country bare ?
Who gets the most benefit from Canadian resources ? Canadians or "foreign investors", or foreign industries where they're made into products we have to buy back ?
I was paying my men the best wages and most owned their homes. There were no foodbank lines and no "free trade" rackets stripping the country bare, killing thousands of private businesses and a million jobs, praised by brainless "conservatives". Executives were making 10 times the wages of their workers, not 3-or 400 times .
What does and executive do and what right does he or she have to steal $10 or 40 million per year from the public, when his or her workers are starving in the foodbank lines ?
Ed Deak.
bhglennie
31 weeks ago
putting BC back to work
The Clark Liberals have all these ads and photo-ops about "putting BC back to work" to hide what they are really doing. Cuts in education for our own sons and daughters. Wage controls on workers but big increases in services.
Do they really hate the people of BC that much?
RickW
31 weeks ago
Kredit
I would be more than happy to work for $1.00/hr - when cup of coffee goes back to 10 cents - when the price of house can be paid for without a mortgage - etc. Now you tell me why wages should be the first to drop. Why not the price of goods first?
RickW
31 weeks ago
Head Tax Anyone?
Except this time around we'll be PAYING them instead of CHARGING them for the "privilege" of working over here..........that seems to be the free enterprisers notion of business.
zalm
31 weeks ago
Some interesting figures
For those who like to compare them. Too bad there weren't a few from overseas in the mix.
http://technology.infomine.com/reviews/MiningSalaries/welcome.asp?view=full
Okanagan Orchardist
31 weeks ago
Steelchef suggested something that we need to do.
"You all can bitch and complain your brains out but action is what's needed. We all need to encourage the younger generations to become involved and exersize their franchises. Voter apathy got us here and will drive us further down the path to Americanism."
Whatever the topic -- BC politics, Federal politics, Municipal politics, climate change -- complaints, but no action. I know there are some of you out there that are politically active, but I wonder just how many. By active I mean, how many have written letters to local papers (the part of the paper read first by most folks); how many spend time talking to young folks, explaining why it is important to vote (and suggesting who they should vote for and why); how many contribute money (even small amounts) to organizations that are fighting Harper or Clark; how many have joined political parties so that you can vote for the best candidate in both the provincial and federal run-offs in your riding?
If everyone of us goes out and convinces 10 youngsters who have not voted in previous elections to do so this time around, we will be doing far more than just complaining to the 75% of us who are already convinced that something needs to be done in this country.
During the last 6 years since I have been following TYEE's topics and its posters, I haven't seen anyone who has changed his or her mind about their political point of view, climate change, their religion or what have you. As Steelchef suggested --you need to get active!
Guy Gentner
31 weeks ago
For the Record
Van Isle is correct, Laila Yuile was way ahead of this story I find recent media concern re Chinese Temporary Workers in coal mines in Tumbler Ridge astonishing. Over a year ago, one month before Christy Clark went to Asia to announce Chinese investment into BC coal mines I addressed the government’s sell off of our resource base and its dismal job plan strategy. This is what I said:
The Premier has said and the throne speech says: "We will reach out to help B.C. companies entering Asian markets. We will be better equipped to welcome foreign investors through a new hosting and business development program. The Premier also will lead a provincial trade mission to…China this fall to build and strengthen relationships forged over the past decade and to identify opportunities for the next decade.”
Yet HD Mines, a joint venture recently formed between the Huiyong Group of mines — this is from China — has six months to bring workers to Tumbler Ridge before the LMOs expire. Now, HD Mines near Tumbler Ridge has already received permission to hire 92 foreign workers from China for their proposed coal mine — trained in China. So where are the jobs for British Columbia? You're bringing this investment from Asia, but the foreign workers are coming from China. Is that the new job plan for British Columbia? That is the job plan."
Debates of the Legislature of British Columbia: (Hansard), Wednesday, October 5, 2011; Afternoon Sitting, Volume 25, #4; see: http://www.leg.bc.ca/hansard/39th4th/h11005p.htm#7987
HD is partner with Chinese companies that include coal producers, the Kailuan Group and Dehua Group, which formed a subsidiary Canadian Kailuan Dehua Group back in 2008 in order to mine coal in north-eastern BC. The other player is the steel company Shouganag Group.
In fact the deal was announced by Pat Bell March 29 2011 in his own trade mission to China; see: http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/article/20110329/PRINCEGEORGE0101/303299962/-1/princegeorge/thousands-of-jobs-forecasted-for-chinese-northern-bc-mining-plan
So again why the big hubbaloo? Why now? The deal was in motion in 2008, before the 2009 Provincial election with no concern. Bell bragged about it in the spring of 2011. Gentner brought it to the attention of the House a year ago, but now it’s of major concern. I bring this to your attention for the record. Thanks to Steve Hunt and Tom Sandborn for making the message more salient in the public mind.
mission impossible
31 weeks ago
The secret war
Corporations are at war, an unannounced war, the opponent is you, the biggest lie perpetrated is the future promises..
Millions and millions of workers required as boomers retire..
Truth be known, if joe public knew that this was a lie, a big whopper lie they wouldn`t put up with the greed..
Corporations for at least a decade have been spinning this yarn, the world is 40% unemployed, robotics, computers, advances in technology..
40% unemployment and every consumer good is in surplus supply..
And when there are 3000 Chinese coal miners who don`t speak english in Tumbler ridge, who will go there but more Asian slaves..
Chinese owned mine, coal destined for China, Chinese workers, and..
Chinese workers killed in underground collapses.
Cheers.
http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2012/10/coal-underground-labour.html
Cool Hand
31 weeks ago
Look Under Every Stone and Ye Shall Find An Answer
All metallurgical coal mining operations in BC are open pit.
The only underground coal mining operation in BC is Quinsam Coal on Vancouver Island. More importantly, only "Room and Pillar" mining methodology is used in Canada in underground coal mining operations.
The proposed mines, subject of this Tyee story, are underground mines but will NOT utilize "Room and Pillar" mining, in any event, but "Longwall" mining methodology.
"Longwall" mining methodology is not used in Canada and, ergo, no skilled Canadian tradesmen are extant.
Even the Canadian engineering report submitted to the BC EAO states therein:
http://a100.gov.bc.ca/appsdata/epic/documents/p287/1163714443519_c7325af7177c4591a71fbd56186118c4.pdf
Now this thingy starts to make some sense.
With temp experienced miners in "longwall" mining methodology used for start-up operations and Canadians trained for same as operations commence, I can't see any reason why these temp Chinese miners cannot be replaced by Canadian miners within a couple of years.
BTW, the mines have a 40-year operation life.
Glen Murtz
31 weeks ago
Canada is spelled with a "Can", not a "Canton".
To be fair though, apparently China didn't want to get all "Belgian Congo" on us.
and to anne cameron...
Yeah - the thing about the (brilliant) Harlon County documentary that flabbergasted me was that that nearly all the miners still had outhouses. They had no indoor plumbing. In the United States. In 1970. From all appearances, that's what the future's going to look like here in Canada...
mcwar52
31 weeks ago
Tyee Scoop
Don't be bashful. You had this story back in February - http://thetyee.ca/News/2012/02/14/BC-Chinese-Labour/
Fiat lux
31 weeks ago
Canada nebver needed any so
Canada nebver needed any so called "foreign investment" and doesn't need any now.
As any person experienced in business knows, when you have resources, you have investment to develop them and don't have to sell them to get cash. I had dozens of bankloans when I was in business, repaid them all and kept my assets.
This whole "foreign investment" racket is part of the globalization plans of the capitalist/communist brotherhood for world control and dictatorship.
So where are the scientists and professors to point out the fraud of colonization with imaginary capital ?
Ed Deak.
Frank
31 weeks ago
Luke
How would Cdn miners replace the Chinese, how many Cdn miners do you know that speak Mandarin which is a requirement for the job?
How many Mandarin-speaking miners have been trained by the BC government since this giveaway was announced? Have they even set up a training facility?
The answer to all the above is none.
Just another example of why mining in BC is nothing but a giveaway of our resources.
azub
31 weeks ago
Low salaries
I believe I read somewhere else that Dehua deliberately low-balled salaries in their job advertisements. The idea being that any local worker wouldn't bother applying, thus leaving the door wide open for temporary workers.
I'm hoping the NDP will step on on responsible natural resource management. These resources are not going anywhere. I don't see the need for a rush to get them out of the ground while ignoring any attempt to maximize their yield (royalties are actually a very tiny % of the provincial budget).
Cool Hand
31 weeks ago
Frank
Firstly, this is an OLD NEWS story. This story is at least 5 1/2 years old.
http://ithinkmining.com/2007/05/28/history-repeats-itself-as-the-gething-project-seeks-to-bring-in-chinese-to-operate-a-new-coal-mine/
Secondly, the Gething Mine project is still stuck in Environmental Assessment after all these years (since 2006). It hasn't even received it's environmental certificate or mining permitting.
So no mining is going on except for continued exploratory work.
And the "long-wall" mining method is the overall plan. BTW, longwall mining requires a large capital investment for the necessary equipment, mine development and associated mine infrastructure. Much more expensive than "room and pillar" mining.
No long-wall miners in Canada. And Gething Coal's own career website makes no mention of Mandarin:
http://www.kailuandehua.com/career/default.aspx
Will the mine even be built? Looks like it has the same problems with the West Moberly FN that the Prosperity Mine has!
BTW, if this mine does ever get off the ground, it represents a great entreprenuerial opportunity for you! Why don't ya get together with Fiat Lux, Skywalker, and Sharing is Good and take a page out of Vancouver's Food Cart Program?
Setting up a Szechuan food cart outside the gates of a future Gething Coal Mine could turn into a proverbial gold mine for you guys. No pun intended. ;)
Cool Hand
31 weeks ago
Frank
PS.
Here are Gething Coal's job openings as at March/April, 2011:
For Canadians and no Mandarin required:
http://www.kailuandehua.com/career/jobs.aspx
No mine has been built. Go out and get training as a long-wall miner and you will get a job. BTW, temporary worker permits last only up to 4 years and the mine's lifespan is 40 years. Just add 2 and 2 together.
editingfool
31 weeks ago
language
how can it be legal that in a country that recognizes french and english as the two official languages, that this mining company is able to restrict employment to only those that speak MANDARIN??? WTF?
Frank
31 weeks ago
Luke
Check Michael Smythe's column for yourself. He saw the ads, Mandarin is required in the ads he looked at. So you can take it up with him in the comments section if you like. Or just email him. Here's a link to today's column to save you the trouble of looking it up.
http://www.theprovince.com/life/Mandarin+speaking+miners+draws+fire/7395942/story.html
How many Mandarin-speaking coal miners do you think there are in BC?
As for the permits to bring in foreign workers, they can be renewed. Its not like after 4 years the federal government won't allow Chinese miners in BC.
Under the terms of this deal Chinese companies using Chinese labour take BC resources back to China. There is nothing in this deal for BC except an eventual clean up, 40 years from now I guess. We'd be better off leaving the resource in the ground.
editingfool
31 weeks ago
and to those screaming 'racism!"
policies like this are the kind of thing that turn regular old folks into 'racists.'
this will not win clark and company any votes at the ballot box. it is not benefiting british columbians on any level.
maybe we should do what dear old dave barrett said years ago, 'leave it in the ground.'
Skywalker
31 weeks ago
Under the FIPPA...
...Canada could not dictate to the company that it must replace the Chinese workers with Canadian. Cool Hand is dreaming again. This debate has a few folks who still believe that Canadians will prevail in playing with the Chinese. It is a sick joke.
snert
31 weeks ago
Kreditanstalt
Well, there's competition and then there's a monopoly. What you have here is not fair competition but an attempt to establish a quasi monopoly, by subterfuge, of a lower paid work force.
What's your financial position on this issue? Do you stand to make tons of money if wages go south and profits don't?
zalm
31 weeks ago
Utter crap. Again.
"More importantly, only "Room and Pillar" mining methodology is used in Canada in underground coal mining operations.
"Longwall" mining methodology is not used in Canada and, ergo, no skilled Canadian tradesmen are extant."
I'm sure the "tradesmen" at the Prince mine in Cape Breton would be very surprised to learn they are not longwall mining the coal they've been taking out from under the Atlantic for sixty years. In fact, all four of Cape Breton's coal mines were longwall at depth. Not only that, Smoky River in BC was also a longwall mine until tectonic pressures made rockbursts too dangerous to the equipment and they switched to room and pillar mining.
It'll be interesting to see if the Chinese can make longwall mining work in BC, what with the tremendous tectonic pressures, and the deep folding that nearly all rock in BC has. Were I into taking candy from babies, I'd bet Kuhl Hound that a longwall machine will never be delivered to BC, and that Terex or Bucyrus (Caterpillar) continuous miners will instead make their way here on railcars to chew out the "rooms" and clean up the "pillars" as they retreat.
Longwall and continuous machines have been unmanned for about a decade, anyway - there's no operator at the face, but one instead driving by wire, with a drift supervisor auditing the ore/coal as it comes back along the conveyor. But in order to use those machines, the Chinese miners will have to be to able to read gauges and work computers with English characters and displays on them.
Unless, of course, they bring Chinese machines in at the port.
No, Canada has nothing to learn from Chinese miners, not with 5000 deaths a year in Chinese coal mines. This is strictly about paying experienced miners of any stripe or nationality $6.25 an hour instead of $40 an hour. Just like they did the Costa Ricans who dug the RAV line for SNC Lavalin for $7.50 an hour.
By Kuhl Hound would rather lie to your face to make whatever nonsensical point his Randian outlook on life drives him to.
Don't feed the trolls!
zalm
31 weeks ago
New Afton Mine
Now here's an example of a mine that's at least trying to do the right thing. Hiring and training natives, negotiating with bands, government and locals, paying into the cleanup fund, paying decent (if not union) wages, and even a few royalties to boot.
http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/article/20120917/KAMLOOPS0101/309179996/-1/kamloops/new-afton-mine-opening-is-a-blast
One can forgive perhaps a little of the excessive hyperbole in the article and the "grand opening" in light of the disaster waiting to happen at Canadian Dehua...
That, more than anything, should put paid to Kuhl Hound's little trail of barnyard droppings.
LeftRightLeft
31 weeks ago
Temp Foreign Worker Program Not All Evil
People need to understand that it is actually very difficult for employers to bring over temporary foreign workers. The employer needs to first post the job on government job websites and advertise at length in very detailed ways. They have to offer the "prevailing wage rate" (the average salary for the position) for that occupation based on StatsCan compensation data. They need to offer working conditions that are normal for that occupation and which comply with all of our relevant human rights and labour standards legislation, including health and safety. For lower skilled workers the employer has to also arrange and pay for their transportation and ensure adequate settlement for the workers, including their accommodation. The government also does audits of businesses that hire TFWs, including interviews with the workers, and businesses found to be non-compliant in any of these matters are banned from the program.
This is not to say that there isn't a lot of exploitation that occurs. There is. But the fact is that there are a lot of people without jobs, and a lot of jobs without people in our economy right now. And while I don't agree with bringing over vast quantities of foreign workers for major projects like this, people need to understand that it's much more complicated than the simplistic narrative being spun here.
Skywalker
31 weeks ago
Leftrightleft.
If there are not enough Canadians to mine the stuff, maybe it is better left in the ground. If you are a miner you are thinking about an entire working career. How do you get that when for a decade it might be all going like gangbusters and then nothing for the next decade or more? What do they do? Once it is gone it is gone! Who benefits from this rapid mining of Canadian resources? You scratch the surface a bit and importing foreign workers, when it involves the public's resources, is all evil. Period!
LeftRightLeft
31 weeks ago
Skywalker...
Hey I'm totally in agreement that this whole thing doesn't quite smell right. I'm just saying that it's not like they are bringing over exploited farm labourers in galleys against their will, holding their passports hostage, paying them slave (Chinese) wages in abhorrent conditions and refusing them contact with the outside world. Which is the basic sentiment on this board and others. I'll bet you this mine couldn't have gotten running without these workers. Your point about us leaving resources in the ground if we can't find workers is a good one. I don't necessarily agree but I don't totally disagree either. I've often mused similarly about the mad rush in the oil sands - seems more sensible to me to take a slow, measured approach and develop the oil sands in more environmentally friendly ways (if possible) when/if oil hits $200/barrel.
Cool Hand
31 weeks ago
zalm
Back to your usual bafflegab I see!
The Prince Mine on Cape Breton Island closed in 2001 - over 11 years ago!
http://canadaonline.about.com/od/mining/a/cape-breton-coal-mine-closes.htm
... is a gold/copper mine. Nothing to do with coal seams, which is a completely different animal.
I actually would defer to the engineering report, prepared by a Vancouver company, filed at the BC Environmental Assessment Office over your diatribe.
And therein... the chosen design of the mine and mining methodology will be "long-wall". The link to the document is attached to my post above.
Sigh.
Skywalker
31 weeks ago
Thanks leftrightleft.
Now another diversion post from Cool Hand.
Sigh!
Jeff59Langley
31 weeks ago
Chinese Mine Workers
This is an obscenity and only someone incredibly naive or receiving some personal benefit would support it. It is NOT in Canada's best interests, nor in the interests of British Columbia. This is CHINA coming into CANADA to mine OUR minerals for EXPORT to CHINA. What part of this does not stink?
LeftRightLeft
31 weeks ago
Jeff59...
"What part of this does not stink?"
On balance we have to look at the benefits of the project weighed against the costs. The benefits from the project would accrue to the owners of the company (no benefit to Canada), to the workers (again no benefit to Canada using Chinese workers), and to the public coffers (direct benefit here). So of the three main types of benefits this project only has one.
It's probably safe to assume this project doesn't go ahead without importing Chinese investment dollars, and perhaps (arguably) Chinese human capital.
So the question is whether the costs - primarily environmental but also potential future development opportunity costs) outweigh the benefits (millions to the public coffers). I personally just don't see an insanely imbalanced cost-benefit calculus here. I wouldn't approve it as structured if I were King, but it's not that ludicrous to suggest that there are still significant benefits of the project even without the business dividends/profits and employment benefiting the Canadian economy.
zalm
31 weeks ago
Interesting
...that you would refer to that "dastardly" environmental assessment office as your friend here. Then again, not so surprising given its history of ignoring the obvious and the its ability to pull the wool over its own eyes for any company paying its fee.
It's well remembered that the Environmental Assessment Office vetted the RAV line project as a tunnel-bore, and when it was revealed as a cut-and-cover, spent the next five years backpedalling furiously to cover its own ass for its lack of due diligence, while dozens of small business owners on Cambie St. went bankrupt.
The lead of the Environmental Assessment Office durng that time? Jody Shimkus. The spokesperson for Dehua and its other CHinese partner in the proposed Murray mine? Jody Shimkus.
Forgive me if I call "bullshit" on the same kind of backpedalling and diversionary excuses that I saw in spades seven years ago.
There'll be no "longwall" mining at that site. Not that it matters - Canadian miners are perfectly capable of safely operating any piece of manual or automated mining equipment in any conditions without loss of life... as long as their supervisors and mine safety staff have the same dedication to their jobs.
Which I seriously doubt. The Chinese owner of Canadian Dehua, Kailuan Mining is no better than any of China's other miners, killing workers every year and countless more injured or suffering industrial diseases from lack of protective equipment or safe work practices.
Though Canada's mine safety isn't perfect, what with nearly a dozen deaths so far this year at the operating face, there is at least a culture in Canadian management that largely respects the safety culture most tradesmen have grown up with. Nobody needs Dehua doubling that count in its first six months of operation.
zalm
31 weeks ago
And
I notice you have nothing to say about the Afton mine's hiring and operating practices. any particular reason why not?
Cool Hand
31 weeks ago
zalm
The Canada Line was initially contemplated as bored tunnel construction along Cambie St. up to 37th Ave. due to the fact that an old sewer main at Cambie & 8th could not be moved requiring a deep bored tunnel.
That was part of the initial project definition report filed at the EAO.
The SNC-Lavalin bid subsequently engineered a plan to build over that problematic sewer line. After TransLink accepted SNC-Lavalin's proposal, the EAO required a supplement to the application dealing with cut and cover construction and fixed a 45-day period to elicit public comment.
Part of their statutory responsibility. And the Canada Line through downtown Vancouver was also cut and cover interrupting business.
More importantly, of the 3 bids, two required public funding of $2 billion utilizing bored tunnel, while the SNC Lavalin bid used cut and cover methodology requiring only $1.4 billion in public funding, largely due to the cost differential between bored tunnel v. cut and cover.
So you are telling me that the taxpayer should have spent an additional $600 million just so that the Canada Line could be constructed by bored tunnel?
Blows me away.
BTW, these matters were fully vetted in the Court of Appeal decision.
http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/CA/11/00/2011BCCA0077cor1.htm
As for the Gething coal mine, it's stuck in the EAO. Filed in 2006 and nothing thereafter. Seems dead to me. Nothing going on at the EAO, no public comment stage, nuthin. The Chinese temps seem to be involved in exploratory work along with a 100,000 ton temporary shipment.
Looks like it's going nowhere fast. And if it ever comes to fruition years down the road, I hope it's a unionized mine like all others in BC. Go figure.
I fully support the New Afton mine in Kamloops as an economic generator. It has it's EAO certificate and mining permits and has started production. Awesome.
BTW, did ya know that "Some of those engineers and other specialized employees include Australians" at the New Afton mine?
http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/article/20120705/KAMLOOPS0101/120709931/-1/KAMLOOPS/new-gold-ships-first-concentrate-in-historic-day-for-mine
And the New Afton Mine in Kamloops is also non-unionized, which is also very unusual for a BC mine. At least New Afton has a specialized on-site training program for new recruits.
What concerns me more is the neighbouring proposed Ajax mine in Kamloops, which the looney left (including the Council of Canadians) opposes. Two locals of the Steelworkers Union were so fed up that they have left the Kamloops and District Labour Council due to the looney left therein opposing the mine as well.
sailorken
17 weeks ago
mining royalties
i understand that the proposed raven coal project on vancouver island managed to get rich coleman to waive royalties for mining coal to be sent to china.
we must halt this mindless giving away our resources.