There is no NAR office in Nova Scotia. It is the Titanium Corporation of Canada who has an office and it is out of the chief geologist, Jason Ross's home in Halifax. He has been moving around a lot lately. The main office for both companies is located in Toronto.
I just read the following article in the Halifax Chronicle Herald. It is most interesting, especially the part about there being a short list of 8 potential suitors for SYSCO:
"Sysco's borrowing no surprise to
Tories
By Murray Brewster / The Canadian Press
Nova Scotia's troubled Sydney Steel
Corp. will swallow about half its
$44-million line of credit by the end of
December, despite Tory election promises
of no more taxpayer funding.
"We expect to use a substantial amount of
that money by year-end," said Ian
Thompson, a senior official with
Hoogovens, the Dutch company hired to
operate the mill.
"That was part of the business plan and the
exercise of turning this thing around."
Economic Development Minister Gordon
Balser, who is responsible for the Crown
corporation known as Sysco, confirmed
Thompson's statement, but did not provide
a dollar figure.
"We're not clear on how much will be used," he said. "I expect it will be at least
half. Each of the individual requests will go before the board for approval."
The company was forced to dip into the line of credit in the late summer, Balser
said, but managed to repay it. The draws expected this fall won't be made up.
Sysco's business plan was approved by the former Liberal government and
criticized by the then opposition Tories.
A U.S. firm was hired to find a buyer and currently has a shortlist of eight
possible suitors.
During the summer election in Nova Scotia, the Conservatives played on the
discontent of voters fed up with supporting the mill, which has already soaked up
$2.8 billion in provincial government support over the last 30 years.
"No more tax dollars for Sysco," said page 3 of the Tories' campaign blue book.
A postcard distributed by the Tory candidate in Halifax Citadel - now Education
Minister Jane Purves - created an uproar days before the vote.
It pictured Sydney Steel side by side with a hospital bed and told voters to save
health care by not dumping more money into Sysco.
"The postcard is simply saying what is fact," Premier John Hamm told cheering
supporters on July 24, three days before the election.
"I don't believe that continuing investment of the taxpayers' money in Sysco helps
Nova Scotia. It does not help Cape Breton. I'm talking about investing in the real
economy in Cape Breton."
The Tories committed themselves to closing Sysco if a buyer couldn't be found.
Both the Liberals and NDP also want Sysco sold, but never went as far as to say
they'd shut it down.
Since the summer election, the tough talk has softened and Hamm says that
allowing Sysco to use its line of credit does not conflict with the Tory campaign
promise.
"The money we're talking now about was committed by the previous
government," said Hamm.
"We said we would bring Sysco to a reasonable conclusion for the taxpayers of
Nova Scotia. We are committed to that - we're moving down that road."
Hamm insisted his government hasn't wavered and will close the mill.
But Hoogovens is quietly preparing arguments to persuade the government to
keep operating Sysco beyond Jan. 1 even if a buyer hasn't been found by then.
Chief among the plans was the announcement last week of an important steel
industry quality-assurance certificate. The operators are also trying to diversify the
kind of products Sysco, a rail-maker, produces.
Thompson said shutting Sysco would be a real loss for the province, not only in
the 700 jobs it would kill, but also because of the effort that's gone into turning
the company around.
"If we go down fighting, we go down fighting," he said.
"If we believe we're on the edge of some real turnaround success, that will be our
business to demonstrate that clearly (to the government). Then the decisions will
be made that will be made."
A steel-industry analyst predicted Sysco will be a tough sell because it hasn't
expanded much beyond rail-making into other speciality markets over the last 20
years.
"I think one has to struggle to find out what is their reason for existence," said
Brian Chesnut of Levesque Beaubien and Geoffrion Inc. in Winnipeg.
"Most steel companies, they have some sort of thing they do that's better than
most other companies.
"I don't know what Sysco's is." " |
