N.S. premier to meet with Donkin Mine officials

N.S. premier to meet with Donkin mine owner Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston has agreed to meet with the owner of Cape Breton’s Donkin Coal Mine.

On Tuesday, miners and their families rallied in Glace Bay, N.S., to save the Donkin Mine and it seems their message was heard.

“The premier has reached out and offered to meet with them as soon as possible, so I do believe there's a meeting scheduled for the first week of December,” said Brian Comer, PC MLA for the Donkin area.

Comer has been hearing from the laid off miners and the effects the closure has had on their families.

“As a community leader and elected official, I can certainly take some blame, I suppose, for their frustrations. For me it’s always been about safety and bringing the voices of those affected forward to the government,” he said.

Dawson Brisco, the president and CEO of Morien Resources, which has royalty interest in the mine, says it’s suspending its quarterly dividend payment to investors because of continuing uncertainty with the stop-work order still in effect.

“Given the series of events at Donkin since July, we're hoping there's a change of tune from our political leadership and that the government is committed to fixing the structural regulatory problems that led to this,” said Brisco.

Cape Breton Regional Municipality councillor James Edwards says records of employment have been issued and roughly 20 miners have been sent to work for Kameron operations in Alberta, but he's hoping they'll soon be able to come home.

“We're talking about a private corporation with hundreds of millions of dollars invested into the CBRM's economy,” said Edwards.

Two roof falls in the same week in July prompted the stop work order. The meeting between Premier Tim Houston and Kameron Coal is scheduled for Dec. 7.

For more Nova Scotia news visit our dedicated provincial page.