Kamloops Mayor Peter Milobar recently gave his perspective on the amount of clout the city of Kamloops has in relation to the proposed Ajax mine. He mentioned that council has little say and many councillors are waiting for information before they make a decision.

In January 2012, The Daily News published an article with the following headline: Council Has Big Say On Mine,

Says Ajax Manager. The article mentioned that Jim Whittaker, project manager for Ajax, said if any level of government said no to the project, it would not go ahead. Did the mayor miss that meeting? Can someone get him the minutes please?

The City sent an 11-page questionnaire relating to Ajax in mid-2011 and we are still waiting for
answers.

I would like to see our mayor and council buck up a little and demand answers from Ajax.

With people on both sides of the coin resorting to hysterics (Oh, The Jobs!, Oh, My Lungs), it’s time our council did a bit more to get answers for our city.

Also, rather than waiting for Ajax to send back the answers to their questions, why not do more to ask the citizens of Kamloops what they want?

Even if the open-pit mine emitted an odour that was pleasing to the nose and everyone in Kamloops was promised a pony, people may still not want to live near it. Those people deserve a voice just as much as those who wouldn’t mind if Kamloops looked like Tolkien’s Mordor.

So, if the Ajax folks say the City has a big say on the mine, our elected officials should tell Ajax PR reps to stop dragging their feet and make it snappy.

Good grief.

JOEY JACK

Kamloops