Bilcon talks jobs

By Jonathan Riley

DIGBY COURIER

NovaNewsNow.com

Operations manager John Wall says Bilcon has over job 400 applications on file.

The plan he says is to give jobs to 65 to 80 people during construction and 34 of those people will stay on full time at the quarry. “I want to have a workgroup of local people, happy with their jobs and who want to stay until retirement. There won’t be, apart from myself, any Come-from-aways.”

He did say that for trades requiring certification, such as electricians, they would find certified people as close to Digby Neck as possible.

Wall was speaking to about 90 people at a Bilcon information session Thursday night, May 3 in the Community Theatre at Digby Regional High School.

Bilcon of Nova Scotia is proposing to mine basalt in Whites Cove on Digby Neck for 50 years, and ship the rock to its parent company, Clayton Concrete in New Jersey.

Wall says Bilcon will use outside contractors for building the road, erecting the maintenance facility and the marine facility. But he hopes to do the rest with local employees. “We will pour the concrete, weld the steel and erect the structure all with local people.”

Wall said Bilcon employees can count on a safe work environment, medical and dental benefits, retirement plans, paid vacation, uniforms supplied by the company and two pairs of safety boots a year.

Project manager Paul Buxton also addressed the crowd. He spoke about the status of the project and the poor economy in Digby County and he encouraged everyone to participate in the upcoming public hearings into the project. “Some people will be speaking at the hearings who believe the quarry should not come here. That it will be environmentally damaging. I would suggest if people feel this is a good project, they too are perfectly entitled to make their case to the panel. “You don’t have to be an expert. You can just be someone who lives here, who wants to continue to live in the area and contribute to the economy.”

The hearings begin on June 16 at the Digby Pines Resort. The panel should present their recommendations to the federal and provincial ministers by August.

Buxton estimates the ministers will make their decisions in October, and after a further permit process, Bilcon would be ready to begin construction in the winter or spring of 2008.

According to this timetable the quarry would start operating in 2009.

Anthony McCullough and Dean Gosson both picked up Bilcon t-shirts at the meeting and both took a heavy equipment course last spring. “We want a job,” says McCullough. “This sounded good. I kind of hoped it was going to start a little quicker but I guess they have to go through a process.”

His house in Digby is for sale and he’s thinking about heading West. “If I could find full time steady work until I retire, I’d stay. If this project is done right, I don’t see why it can’t work.”