Well friends and neighbours after the Jan. 28 article in the Globe and Mail (‘Teck Metals to plead guilty over pollution in Trail BC.’) our fate is pretty much sealed.
The smelter here in Trail pumps about $200 million into the local economy of which just about all leaves Trail.
The majority of employees, contractors, their employees and suppliers live outside the city of Trail.
At least once a year Teck has a management update with its employees and one of the first statements made is “Teck Resources operates the smelter within the city limits with public’s permission to do so”.
Or the residents of Trail issue the “social license”.
It is time to maybe rethink why we need to keep putting up with all this crap for the benefit of everyone else but us.
There much conversation about why Nelson and Castlegar move ahead, that’s simple, they don’t have a smelter or a landfill in the middle of their city.
They don’t get crapped on every few years in the national media.
Yes folks we have been through this before only this time there is no coming back.The Globe and Mail has made clear that Trail is no place to be.
It is time for Teck to move the smelter elsewhere or maybe the political leaders of the communities (Nelson, Castlegar, Beaver Valley) that benefit the most from the operation of the smelter make a “business case” to the people of Trail for continuing to issue the “social license.”
To the mayor of Castlegar, of the above $200 million a $150 million of it goes into your surrounding community why don’t you go talk to the guy that owns all the car lots and ask him how many cars he will sell if Teck shuts the smelter down.
Bryan DeFerro
Trail