Other related "works or art" (in deference to Mr. King who has in the past pointed out the difference between Journalism and journalism, or journalism and art.)
Victoria Times Colonist
Fri Mar.20,1998
Page: F6
Byline: CP Wire
Voisey challenge wraps up - Judge urged to order a single environmental assessment
TORONTO (CP) - A grassroots challenge to mining giant Inco's proposed nickel development in Newfoundland ended Thursday with a plea for the federal government to "do the right thing."
"This case is not about expertise, it's about a federal government's legal duty," said Rodney Northey, the lawyer representing the Citizens' Mining Council of Newfoundland. "One problem of (the council's) case is our lack of expert evidence ... The case is not about discretion but duty. The standard is correctness, not reason or deference."
Northey was responding to arguments this week by Voisey's Bay Nickel Co., a subsidiary of Inco, that the mining council had failed to prove a single environmental review of the development was necessary rather than a two-pronged assessment.
He urged Federal Court Judge Andrew MacKay to declare one environmental assessment for the $1.4 billion nickel project that consists of two facilities, a mine mill in Labrador and a smelter-refinery on Newfoundland's Avalon peninsula. Inco says two separate reviews, one on the mine and another on the smelter, is sufficient.
Globe and Mail
Thu Mar.19,1998
Page: B3
Byline: Paul Waldie
Inco executives received pay raises, no bonuses; Salary increases ranged from 6% to 22%; Friedland, Capital Group cut stakes in miner
BY PAUL WALDIE
The Globe and Mail
Executives at Inco Ltd. received no bonuses last year but were given pay increases of up to 22 per cent.
Mining financier Robert Friedland also sold 4.4 million Inco shares last year, representing more than half of his total holding. He now owns 3.2 million shares or 1.6 per cent of the nickel miner's outstanding shares.
Mr. Friedland received his Inco shares through the $4.3-billion takeover of Diamond Fields Resources Inc., which he headed.
Another major shareholder, Capital Group of Cos. Inc. of Los Angeles, cut its stake in Inco to 7.6 per cent from 9.2 per cent during 1997.
The information was contained in a management circular sent to shareholders yesterday.
Toronto-based Inco, one of the world's largest nickel producers, had a dismal year in 1997 largely because of a 32-per-cent drop in the price of nickel.
The company's share price dropped to $24.50 last December from $51.25 in March, 1997. It has since recovered somewhat and closed yesterday at $27.10 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Inco's profit also fell to $75- million (U.S.) last year from $179-million a year earlier.
As a result of the poor performance, the company did not award bonuses to any senior executives last year. However, it did award salary increases of between 6 and 22 per cent to senior executives.
Michael Sopko, Inco's chairman and chief executive officer, was paid $622,000 in 1997, up 21 per cent from his salary in 1996. He received $987,900 by exercising stock options and was paid $397,000 through a long- term incentive program.
In 1996, Mr. Sopko received a bonus of $885,000 on top of his $513,000 salary.
Inco president Scott Hand was paid $530,000 last year, up 22 per cent. He received $692,100 in cash and stock through the exercise of options. He was also paid $338,000 in a long-term incentive. His bonus in 1996 was $753,000 in addition to a salary of $436,000.
In the company's annual report, sent to shareholders yesterday, Inco said it will continue to cut costs and restructure operations to cope with the low price of nickel.
Inco has announced it is slashing its work force by 1,275, or roughly 9 per cent, through layoffs and early retirement. The company is closing four mines and has cut its annual dividend to 10 cents a share from 40 cents.
The company said it does not expect to start production from its massive Voisey's Bay project in Labrador until late 2000. Inco acquired Voisey's Bay, considered the world's richest nickel deposit, through the Diamond Fields takeover. |
