What a difference a year makes. At this time last summer, Vale Inco was gearing up to study two potential "alternative housing camp" sites to house skilled trades workers and contractors the company thought they would need over the next several years.
The current issue of NickeLinks, Vale Inco's employee publication here, lists three skilled trades new hires - industrial mechanics Robert Johnston and Daniel Kingsley in the smelter and Allen Steinthorson in the mill.The City of Thompson, facing its own housing crunch, readily signed on for two terms of reference studies with Vale Inco last year to pick a site for the proposed alternative housing camp.Today those plans are going nowhere. "Due to the economic slowdown (and the easing of the housing demand) the timeline of this project has been pushed back," said deputy mayor Oswald Sawh in a report from the legislative and intergovernmental affairs committee presented to city council July 27, "but is still in Vale Inco's long term plan. More time will now be available to complete the necessary due diligence associated with such a project."
The city meets officially with Vale Inco at last quarterly. The most recent meeting was held May 28.
Also dead in the water on the Vale Inco and City of Thompson negotiating front is an 18-month old attempt by the city to get Vale Inco to increase its voluntary grant-in-lieu of $6.220 million, which is divvied up between the City of Thompson, Local Government District of Mystery Lake and the School District of Mystery Lake. The current grant-in-lieu of taxes agreement runs from Jan. 1, 2005 to Dec. 31, 2012.
The city's share of the $6.220 million is 71.201 per cent, or about $4.43 million, which amounts to about 17.37 per cent of this year's $25.497-million budget.
As well as the grant-in-lieu of taxes Vale Inco pays the city, the company is also providing an additional $250,000 per year for $2.5 million in special funding over 10 years in its separate Thompson Unlimited community economic development initiative.
On Jan. 21, 2008, the city proposed Vale Inco an additional $5.5 million over the next three years to help cover infrastructure costs and fund sustainable growth projects. On April 11, 2008, Vale Inco flatly rejected the idea. In response to the company's rejection of its proposal council asked the province to assist them in their dealings with Vale Inco on the issue. Specifically, the city wrote to Steve Ashton, Thompson's NDP MLA and minister of intergovernmental affairs, and Jim Rondeau, minister of science, technology, energy and mines.
Later, the city backed off and continued discussions with Vale Inco more informally over the spring of 2008. Mayor Tim Johnston said in an interview Aug. 6, 2008 he didn't see the letters as an urgent matter requiring the requested provincial help as "we had good discussions with Vale Inco on the grant-in-lieu of taxes issue in the spring."The following month the global financial meltdown began and nickel demand and prices, which have since recovered somewhat, plunged and notion of changing the voluntary agreement in the foreseeable future vanished, city officials admit.
In terms of the alternative housing camp, the city identified two potential locations for alternative housing. Location A, as it is known, is the Yale-Neumann site, contiguous to developed residential land and located immediately outside of the city limits, presently in the jurisdiction of the Local Government District (LDG) of Mystery Lake, on the southeast side of the Burntwood River.
Location B is situated on the north side of the Burntwood River and west of Provincial Trunk Highway (PTH) 391 and is known as the Stable Road site.
Vale Inco retained Stantec Consulting Ltd. for "Terms of Reference to Determine a Preferred Site to Accommodate Future Development in Thompson, Manitoba" studies to be led by consulting engineer Len Chambers out of Stantec's Winnipeg office.
Vale Inco is to foot the bill for the studies. The terms of reference approach was adopted to avoid going through a lengthy call for Requests for Proposals (RFP). The purpose is to do an evaluation of both sites from an engineering perspective.
The studies are being undertaken independently with the final report on matters identified in the RFP being property of the city. The idea is the site selected for temporary accommodations by Vale Inco would eventually become a housing "legacy for the community," the city said.
