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8 Tuesday July 7 2015 POLITICS LABOUR Town hiring replacement workers as Hay River strike enters seventh month By MEAGAN WOHLBERG The Town of Hay River plans to bring on more replacement workers to ll the gaps in service caused by the ongoing municipal strike that enters its seventh month this week. Councilhasattemptedtoresolvethelabour dispute through negotiations however our efforts have constantly been rejected by the unionsaidHayRiverMayorAndrewCassidy. Council is still committed to ending the strike through the negotiation process but is now looking at longer-term service delivery. Approximately30workershavebeenonstrike sinceFeb.9duetoadisputeoverwageincreases. The town is now advertising for as-and- when contract workers to perform duties in administrative support nancial administra- tion support project management and rec- reation operation and maintenance services. UnionofNorthernWorkers1stvicepresident Gayla Thunstrom warned that bringing in re- placementworkerswillonlyexacerbateincreas- ing tensions in the community where conicts betweencontractworkersandpicketersrecently resulted in RCMP being called to assist. Replacement workers or scabs and con- tractors are not heroes brought in to save the day she said. Weve said that all along. Their use only serves to make a settlement more difcult to achieve and to create bitterness that will last long after the dispute. By hir- ing scabs it usually ends in lengthening the dispute in most cases. The union rejected the towns latest offer last month after taking it to the membership for a vote. The town had bumped its offer up to a 1.7 per cent annual wage increase over the life of the three-year collective agreement which expired December 2013. According to union ofcials two thirds of the employees rejected the offer calling for a fairer agreement on par with similar con- tracts recently signed by union employees in the Village of Fort Simpson and with the Fort Smith Housing Authority. Since then the town has dropped its offer back down to 1.55 per cent. The union is still asking for a 2.25-2.5 per cent increase over the three years. Thunstrom said the union wants to see the matter taken to an independent third party to decide as was requested earlier this year but rejected by town council. I really truly believe that the way to set- tle this dispute at this point in time is for the employer to accept the unions offer of bind- ing arbitration she said. Mining incentive program funds 12 exploration projects By MEAGAN WOHLBERG A dozen mining juniors and prospectors were given a leg up last week during the sec- ond round of the GNWTs recently introduced mining incentive program. Twelve gold and diamond exploration proj- ects in the North Slave and Sahtu regions re- ceived 400000 on June 30 in an attempt to boost exploration and possibly spark some discoveries. We know our territory is rich in minerals but we are still under-explored said Indus- try Tourism and Investment Minister David Ramsay. Prospecting maximizes the return on our investment through innovative and effective exploration. The majority of the projects funded are looking for gold or diamonds in the Slave Geo- logical Province but one owned by DEMCo L.P. - a Dene-owned mining company - is searching for silver iron oxide copper and gold near Great Bear Lake in the Sahtu. Companies that received funding include TerraX Minerals Inc. which is looking for gold in the Yellowknife area along with Panarc Resources Ltd. GGL Resources Corp. both of which are in search of a variety of base met- als. Proxima Diamonds Corp. and Canterra Minerals Corp. are on the hunt for diamonds. In the prospector program Dave Nicker- son Penelope Shaw Ken Baigent Nicolas Walker and Wayne Kendrik have all received funding to look for gold while Gary Jaeb is the sole prospector exploring for diamonds. The mining incentive program comes out of the territorys Mineral Development Strat- egy intended to promote and support explo- ration and mining work in the NWT. It was modelled after similar programs in other jurisdictions and is managed by the NWT Geological Survey. The annual budget for the program is 400000andgivesprospectorsupto15000 each. Companies are eligible to receive up to 100000 representing 50 per cent of eli- gible expenses. This is the second year of the program. In both years the GNWT indicated exploration companies and prospectors asked for more funding than was available. INDUSTRY MINING Companies and prospectors on the hunt for diamonds and gold in the NWT were given a funding boost by the territorial governments mining incentive program. PhotoDaveBrosha I really truly believe that the way to settle this dispute at this point in time is for the employer to accept the unions offer of binding arbitration. 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