ci @ | | @ | Cassiar Courier the Voice of Cassiar Country FEBRUARY 1984 10 cents Webber declares candidacy Skeena Progressive Conservative constituency of- ficials today announced that Mr. Roy Webber, Prince Rupert realtor and businessman, will be a candidate for the P.C. nomination in this constit- uency. Mr. Webber was born in Prince Rupert, and has been active in the public affairs of this region for many years. He is a former alderman in the city of Prince Rupert, and has served as a Vice- President of the British Columbia Chamber of Commerce. He is married, and has six sons. The P.C. constituency executive expect that the nominating meeting to select a candidate for the next federal election will be held in March or April. Mr. Webber is the second candidate to declare for the nomination; Mr. Peter Weeber of New Hazel- ton announced his candidacy in November. Mary Tomashewski retires On January 4th, many friends, colleagues and family members gathered for a special party held in the Lions Den in honour of Mary Tomashewski who is retiring after 19 years service with Cassiar Resources. Mary came to Cassiar in 1965 and hired on with the Company, August 10 of the same year. With the exception of one month, she worked un- til December 30th, 1983. A buffet dinner was served followed by a spe- cial cake—decorated with a special Bingo Card. Maybe Mary will be able to use it when she goes to the Bingo in Prince George. Mary then received several gifts including six red, long stemmed roses—one from each of her daughters, as well as a pendant. A beautiful fare- well card containing an undisclosed amount of money (Mary says she’ll be able to go to Bingo for quite awhile) was presented by Wayne Mayell. The card was designed and painted by Walter Comper and depicted the road out of Cassiar. In case she would like to find a job in Prince George, her working colleagues gave her all the necessary equipment—gloves, hard hat, apron, job descrip- tion, etc. They even gave her her own chair (to make sure she could sit for a coffee break.) Lothar Kutz was an admirable Master of Ceremonies. Mary has been a well known face around town | and has several interests. Her love of curling is superceded only by her love of Bingo—she is also known as the Cassiar Bingoholic. She’ll really be missed at the local bingos (although maybe everyone else will win more often). Mary helped run the snack bar at the curling club at various times and was also a member of the Lioness Club. She is moving to Prince George and everyone wishes her the best of luck in the future. “f) He was a solitary man, as 50 many of the old tim- The Cassiar region has lost another of its pioneers. ‘Joe Reid passed away at his cabin at Poor Man Lake just before Christmas. His death was discov- ered by a friend who had flown to the cabin to bring Joe out to Cassiar for Christmas. He appar- ently died of a heart attack while hauling a load of firewood. Joe Reid was born on June 3, 1906 in Verdun, Manitoba. He trekked into the Cassiars from Haz- elton in 1937. He-was here before there were any roads or towns and watched as different mining companies came and went and the area developed into what it is today. Over the years Joe worked at various jobs in the mining industry. He packed in supplies for the mining companies and prospected on his own. During construction of the Watson Lake Airport and the Alaska Highway, Joe teamed up with Bob Wilms and freighted supplies from Dease Lake to Watson Lake via the Dease River. At one time he iness. During his nearly 50 years in the Cassiars Joe liv- ed at several different places. He built cabins at McDame Post, Reed’s Hill and Poor Man Lake, all of which are standing today. ers were. For about the last eight years he lived alone at his cabin at Poor Man’s Lake, which was a day’s walk from the nearest road. He had no ra- dio contact with the outside world and maintain- ed the old way of life right up until his death. Brinco President Snyder Says; “‘Brinco must cut costs’. In a recent interview, Hugh Snyder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Brinco Ltd., dis- cussed some of the many problems which Brinco is facing at the present time. Brinco recently is- sued figures for the first 9 months of 1983. The loss was $38 million. While this is not quite as bad as the $11.6 million loss for the same period in 1982, it has still necessitated a paring down of its operations and the company has had to approach its bankers to renegotiate the payments of the $70 million debt—a debt acquired primarily to purchase Cassiar Asbestos. In 1982, Brinco lost a total of $28. 8 million and has made no preferred share dividend pay- ments since September of that year. Brinco ranks in both assets and sales well be- hind the giants of the Canadian mining industry and the value of its stock has dropped drastically since 1980 when it was as high as $12.88. Snyder said that the major concern of the Company is the debt situation. Pioneer passes away also worked with Bob Wilms in the lumber bus- _ ‘Pat Hickman bad Bob Bowen. He was buried: in Frugality is the keyword the Cassiar cemetery: He leaves to mourn his loss, his brother, Peter Huculuk, in Kamloops. The Company closed down the mining opera- tion at the upper levels of the San Antonio Gold Mine in May of last year—although they are now looking for partners to work in a joint venture ex- ploration and development of the ore at the lower levels. The Loftis coal mine in Kentucky was closed in October 1983 for an indefinite period of time—mainly because of depressed markets. At the present time the Company is ‘marking time’ with regard to its oil and gas ventures, although the long term potential there is good. Brinco’s major operation is its Cassiar Mine. In spite of depressed markets, Cassiar is still running at about 90% capacity. This compares very fav- ourably with the rest of the industry which is run- ning at about 40-50%. Even here ‘frugality’ is the key word. The work force has been reduced from a high of 670 in 1981 to 480 at the present time - and the average production costs per ton for 1983 were 14% lower than for 1982. As part of its cutbacks, Brinco recently moved its executive offices from Toronto to Vancouver. Brinco is currently pursuing a major project on Vancouver Island—the Quinsam Coal Develop- — ment near Campbell River. This is a joint venture with Weldwood of Canada Ltd.—but has met-with a great deal of opposition from environmentalists. However, if the Government gives its approval construction could begin in 1984/85. All in all, Brinco’s major emphasis will be on getting costs under control while retaining a fair share of the market, and servicing its debt—quite a tall order with the present day slump in the industry.