Moose FM CJJM 99.3 - Espanola

It’s good news for Cameco.  The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has given the company a license approving the construction and operation of its mine at Cigar Lake in Saskatchewan.  The license doesn’t have to be renewed until 2021.  Cameco will bore at Cigar Lake this summer and expects to extract its first haul of uranium before the end of the year.  Cameco has a refinery in Blind River.

The NDP are blaming the Liberal government for a delay in the Ring of Fire start-up.  Cliffs Natural Resources has suspended its environmental assessment of the chromite find on several counts including one that involves incomplete agreements with the province.  The NDP’s Mike Mantha, who is the party’s mines critic, says this is another case of the Liberals dropping the ball on the huge mining development.  Mantha believes if the government would take over the environmental assessment, the process can re-start.  He adds the issue of a transportation corridor to ship the ore out still needs to be addressed as does the high cost of electricity in the north.

The federal NDP want better legislation to protect bus drivers.  And to that end, Thunder Bay – Rainy River MP John Rafferty is introducing a Private Member’s Bill to protect transit operators.  An assault against two Thunder Bay bus drivers by members of the public is prompting Rafferty to take action.   Rafferty adds there have been similar assaults in Sudbury, Montreal and Vancouver.  The Amalgamated Transit Union represents most bus drivers and says this trend of assaulting the operators is rising.

The chief of a Northern Ontario First Nation says the feds and not the province should pay for policing on reserves.  Isadore Day says until recently the federal government gave the province money to help pay for 40 First Nations police officers.  But that agreement has expired and Day says there’s no indication the Harper Tories intend to renew it.  Day says luckily the provincial government is making up the shortfall to the tune of $4 million.  But Day says the province can’t keep stepping in and fund programs when the feds decide to bail out.