Rally in Cape Breton for idled Donkin coal mine attracts about 150 people

More than 150 people attended a rally Tuesday in Glace Bay, N.S., in support of the idled underground coal mine in Donkin.

Nova Scotia's Department of Labour issued a stop-work order at the mine in July after two roof falls in one week.

Last week, after a third-party review of the mine operator's safety plans, provincial officials said the mine can reopen if the owner updates its hazard assessment and increases monitoring of roof movements.

Mine owner Kameron Coal has not said whether it intends to comply with the conditions, but those at the rally called on the provincial government — particularly Premier Tim Houston and area PC MLAs John White and Brian Comer — to get the miners back to work quickly.

"Hopefully, with everybody that turned out and [if] we get some of our local politicians involved with this, they will step forward and help us out," said AJ Hall, a labourer who worked underground in the Donkin mine until he was laid off this summer.

Hall said mine owner Kameron Coal provides good paying jobs and the operation is safe.

About 130 people worked full time at the site.

AJ Hall's father was one of 12 men killed in an underground explosion in a Glace Bay coal mine in 1979, but he says conditions are different now and the Donkin mine is safe. (Tom Ayers/CBC)

"Unfortunately, the government has the noose around the neck of the company and they're the ones that have got to let it go," he said.

Hall's father was one of 12 men killed following an underground explosion in 1979 in Glace Bay's Number 26 colliery.

Hall said if his father were still alive, he'd tell him to get back to work.

He said the conditions miners face today are not what they were when his father worked in the pit.

"They're definitely much more safer I would imagine than when he was underground," Hall said.

"I was only six. I don't know a whole lot of the stories of how he done his job, but from pictures and everything ... it is much more safer now than it ever was."

Several councillors and the mayor of Cape Breton Regional Municipality spoke at the rally, all of them urging the province to speed up the mine's return to work.

Morien Resources CEO Dawson Briscoe says the government made a mistake keeping a stop-work order in place at the Donkin mine for four months. (Tom Ayers/CBC)

Many at the rally criticized the Department of Labour's slow pace with the safety review.

The stop-work order was issued in July and, after the roof was bolted along the entire length of the access tunnel, the mine passed a provincial inspection, said Dawson Briscoe, CEO of Morien Resources, which gets royalties from all of the Donkin coal sold.

But the province took until late September to order a third-party review and only revealed the results last week.

Briscoe said the government made a mistake in shutting down the mine and then delaying its reopening for so long.

"There's no need to pin them down for four months for a situation where no one was injured and not even equipment was damaged. Four months is too long," Briscoe said.

The Department of Labour says it needed to wait for the results of an independent third-party review to ensure the mine was safe for workers to return. (Tom Ayers/CBC)

Workplace deaths at the Michelin tire plant in Waterville, N.S., and at the Martin Marietta quarry near Port Hastings resulted in stop-work orders that lasted only a few days, he said.

"I mean is this really about safety or is it more about the optics of safety?"

The Department of Labour has said it needed to wait for the third-party review to ensure it is safe for miners to back underground.

Last week, Labour Minister Jill Balser said no one wants to see another death underground in a province that has seen many miners die on the job, including 26 who were killed in 1992.

Labour minister cites Westray disaster

"Of course, Westray is on the minds of Nova Scotians and those who were directly affected by the catastrophe that happened think about that every day," she said.

"That informs our direction at the department, to make sure that workplace safety is the top of mind of everything that we do."

Some people, including Briscoe, have said Kameron Coal may not reopen the mine if regulators create too much uncertainty.

According to Morien Resources annual reports, the company has earned about $3.2 million in royalties since the mine opened in 2017.

Morien Resources says Kameron Coal has spent $300 million developing the Donkin mine, but according to royalty figures, has only sold about $159 million worth of coal so far. (Tom Ayers/CBC)

The company gets two per cent of sales, which means Kameron Coal has sold about $159 million in Donkin coal so far.

Briscoe said Kameron Coal has poured more than $300 million into developing the mine, so it has yet to break even on its investment.

He said the company needs to know if there's another roof fall, with no injuries, that the government won't shut the mine down for four months or longer.

But Briscoe said ultimately, he is optimistic the mine will reopen.

"Until those tunnels are flooded ... I will forever fight for this mine," he said.

Province also gets a royalty

Nova Scotia's Department of Natural Resources also gets a royalty, but its payment is a flat fee of $1.15 per tonne.

The province said it has received $985,000 in royalties from the Donkin mine so far, which works out to 856,500 tonnes of coal.

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