The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor The long-awaited reopening of a Snow Lake gold mine may have suffered another setback. QMX Gold Corp. has apparently been unsuccessful in its bid to raise about $30 million through a marketed offering. The funding was to have in part financed the development of the Snow Lake Mine _ formerly the New Britannia Mine. The Financial Post reports that QMX 'ended up with some expressions of interest, but presumably not enough.' The company now says it is 'seeking less dilutive financing options.' 'It's good news,' Louis Baribeau, head of public relations for QMX, told the Post. 'We think we have better options to finance the balance of the Snow Lake Project. One bank, Credit Suisse, has given us conditional approval on US$45 of senior debt. At these levels the stock is undervalued.' See 'Sask...'on pg. 15 Continued from pg.1 It added three new politicians at a cost of millions of dollars, while completely ignoring the roads, training programs and infrastructure issues that northern Saskatchewan residents need. Saskatchewan people deserve a government that acts on common sense solutions to challenges such as the shortages of education and training opportunities. Instead, the Sask. Party has focused its efforts and money on slick ads and photo-ops. As the MLA for the region, I have and will continue to listen to the people of the North and make your priorities my own. What I'm hearing is that surprises like selling our personal information Crown corporation and adding three more MLAs to the province are not the surprises the common-sense people of the North voted for. REMINDER: You said during the 2011 campaign that your party does not support a nuclear-waste repository in Saskatchewan. You also said that you would support whatever decision Creighton makes in terms of potentially pursuing this opportunity. Are we to take this as meaning you will go against your own party if Creighton decides it does in fact want the repository? Also, if the Saskatchewan legislature were to vote on banning nuclear waste in the province, as Manitoba has done, how will you vote and why? VERMETTE: Consultation is the most important part of being your MLA. My first priority is to listen to you and to take your message and your wishes forward to the Legislature. That type of consultation is exactly what I would do in the case of any interest in nuclear waste disposal. REMINDER: There is much talk of the 'Saskatchewan boom,' driven by natural resources. Yet there would not appear to be much of a boom in the Creighton-Denare Beach-Pelican Narrows region, where, it is fair to say, the economy has basically held steady if not worsened. Are there more resources in this area that can be exploited as well? What can be done to ensure this area is also part of the Saskatchewan boom? VERMETTE: Sadly, this is another indication of the Sask. Party's decision to ignore the North. The Sask. Party took an expensive trip to Ireland to recruit workers when people in Creighton, Denare Beach and Pelican Narrows need jobs, training and opportunities. Under the Sask. Party's watch, First Nations unemployment has risen to a shocking 21.3 per cent, and the Aboriginal Employment Development Program was cancelled. The people of the Creighton-Denare Beach and Pelican Narrows areas deserve better. There are several opportunities to develop resources in northern Saskatchewan. Investments in roads, cellular and Internet services and trades training would bring industry to the region. REMINDER: Many Denare Beach residents have expressed concern over crime in their community, such as break-ins and vandalism. How aware are you of these concerns and what role, if any, can you as MLA play in diminishing them? VERMETTE: Crime is unquestionably a serious issue in the North. The healthiest solution is addressing the roots of crime _ which means making changes so that people receive the education and job opportunities they deserve and have infrastructure that the people of Creighton and Denare Beach can be proud of. (The second part of this interview will appear Monday.)
