When the announcement finally came, it came as no surprise.
Indeed, the Northeast Coal Project had been on the public’s radar since 1975.
While the official announcement came in December of that year, the first mention we’ve been able to track down was September 13, 1975 interview with Eileen Caner, head of the then-new Women’s Economic Rights branch of the Economic Development Ministry, who mentioned that their department was looking at the Northeast Coal Development to ensure women had a place.
“There will be lots of jobs opening up in this area,” she said. “We want to make sure women get access to jobs at all levels and the necessary social infrastructure for women, such as child care and transportation, is available.”
Provincial studies had been ongoing for about two years before that, but the official start of the Northeast Coal Project came with a public announcement by Economic Development Minister Gary Lauk on December 2, 1975.
At the time, the companies involved were Denison, who were to go on to start Quintette, and Coalition Mining Co, a coalition of mining companies—including Teck—that has faded into obscurity.
At the announcement, Lauk said he was expecting the companies to go into production by 1979.
However, both companies said after the press conference that “no positive decisions” had been made to proceed.
R.C. Hermann, vice-president coal operations of Denison Mines Ltd. Said at the time “no positive decision” had been made to proceed on the Quintette property. “We may or may not, depending on the feasibility study which will be completed this time next year.”
Meanwhile, Dr. George M. Furnival, president of Coalition, said: “No decision has been made on the property. We are doing a number of feasibility studies looking at various rates of investment and considering the economics to determine to what degree the project can be viable.”
He pointed out that where Lauk had said that following assessment of studies detailed feasibility “will” be started, that the operative word was “may.”
Teck was also mentioned in the press conference, but they were still doing exploration work. Dr. Norman Keevil Jr., executive vice-president of Teck, said any decision on whether the Bullmoose property was developed was premature until Coalition decided on whether to proceed at Sukunka. He said if Coalition did not proceed then Teck, which controls Brameda, would want to focus on the Sukunka. This ultimately didn’t happen, as the new rail line favoured the Bullmoose project.
Lauk said construction of the railway could start in late 1976, if the mines proceeded.
A story in the Province, dated December 3 1975, outlined the projects and their costs: Coalition was completing preliminary feasibility studies on the Sukunka property 38 miles south of Chetwynd. “We have commitments from the company that these will lead to engineering and feasibility studies which will be carried out in cooperation with the government.” Lauk said the company was contemplating an underground mine producing 750,000 tons a year and employing 350-400.
Denison, Lauk said, had agreed to proceed to detailed feasibility and engineering studies of its Quintette properties in cooperation with the government, with completion due for late 1976. “If the detailed engineering and feasibility studies verify preliminary findings, production could commence in late 1979 with an eventual output of five million tons of clean coal annually,” he said. The mine was expected to hit five million tonnes by 1983, and employ up to 1200 people.
At the time, Teck’s Bullmoose property was about two years behind the other projects.
Lauk said the government was not in favour of building a new town, but that “Sheer economic factors” might mean a new town was necessary. If there were to be a new town, he said it would have to be approached with “extreme care.”
A training facility for mine employees was expected to be built in Dawson Creek.
THE LONG ROAD TO TUMBLER
The Northeast Coal Project finds its roots in earlier attempts to extract coal from the region. In the 1940s, the BC government estimated BC’s Coal reserves at 26 billion tonnes, but coal was falling out of favour, and for about 20 years the BC Coal industry was moribund. While there were coal mines in the East Kootenays from the turn of the century, these were mostly to supply coal powered trains, which were phased out in the 1950s. A few mines continued through to the 1960s, but coal was not a growth business.
But in the late 1960s, Japanese Steelmakers began looking around the world for quality coking coal, and they found it in BC. The first open pit mine for this expert market was built by Kaiser Resource Ltd. in the Elk Valley , shipping coal overseas to the Asian Market.
But demand far outstripped production, even as new mines came on stream in southern BC and Alberta. Part of that was due to lack of knowledge, as large scale coal mining was a new pursuit for the province, and the mines struggled to produce 800,000 tons per year.
As the demand for coal was seemingly insatiable, companies began exploring other avenues to meet the demand.
In July of 1971, Brascan announced it was starting work “immediately” on the Sukunka coking coal project, with agreements to develop the property to be in place within the month. In August, they announced that the deals were wrapped, and that work on the property would continue through the winter.
But in September of 1971, the Japanese steelmaking industry said that Canadian Coal companies were only hitting 70 percent of their promised exports. “It may be necessary to cancel and switch sources of supply from Canada.”
That didn’t stop the Sukunka Coal Project. In 1972, a $250 million agreement to build a branch line for BC Rail to the new mine south of Chetwynd was announced. The coal would be hauled to a port at Squamish, but that plan was vetoed by the Federal Government in November of that year. At the time, many people saw the plan as a pure grab by the province. The port at Prince Rupert was closer and better suited to handle a large coal terminal, but it was a CN rail line west of Prince George.
With a deadline of January 31, 1973 for the company to make a final go/no go decision, the pressure was on to find an alternative port. The province suggested Brittania Beach, farther down Howe sound, and granted the company a two year extension to consider their options, taking the pressure off while the political wrangling over where to build a coal port ramped up.
Despite the extension, the company decided that they couldn’t move ahead with so much political uncertainty, and on February 15, they halted work on the project until the dispute was settled.
In March of 1973, the BC Government announced it was planning on buying a 40 percent stake in the project through BC Rail. A few months later, the government turned to the British Steel industry with a plan to build a steel mill in the province, using coal from the Sukunka project, but in July 1974, the government dropped its option, saying the project had been scaled down and was no longer the same project as when the agreement was signed.
NORTHEAST COAL PROJECT BEGINS
Work on the Sukunka project continued, but by this time, other companies were also in the area, exploring their own options, and, on December 3, 1975, Mines Minister Gary Lauk made the official announcement that the Northeast Coal Project was being developed.
At the time, the plan was to bring the rail south from Chetwynd to service four possible mines: Coalition’s Sukunka Project, Teck’s Bullmoose project and Denison’s Quintette and Babcock Projects.
Denison had been drilling in the area since 1971, having signed a deal with US company Barnes and Tucker to explore these properties, and in January 1972 announced a potential 2.8 billion tons of coal on their 226 mile reserve, and in September 1973 they signed an agreement in principle with two Japanese steelmakers. While they continued exploration and negotiations, it wasn’t until Quintette opened in 1983 that the dream of coal from that area became a reality.
In 1981, Teck and Denison secured contracts to provide 6.5 million tonnes of coal to the Japanese Market. That, along with new mines opening up in Australia, was finally able to satiate the Asian Steelmakers.
Meanwhile, the dreams of a mine in the Sukunka valley turned to ash. In 1976, Brascan stepped away from the project. British Petroleum Canada stepped in to pick up the pieces of the project, but in 1982, they halted the project, saying they couldn’t find enough buyers for their coal.
They were able to secure one contract for 750,000 tonnes, but it fell nearly 500, 000 tonnes short of a viable project.
It didn’t help that in June of 1981 the Federal and Provincial government finally agreed on the route the rail line, which would cut across country from near Anzac on the BC Rail mainline, cutting through two major mountain ranges to Quintette, rather than coming south from Chetwynd, as was originally planned. This left the Sukunka project no closer to rail than before.
At the time, the project to build Tumbler Ridge was expected to cost $232 million.
Municipal Affairs Minister Bill Vander Zalm made the announcement, appointing former Fort St. John Mayor Pat Walsh as the municipality’s commissioner.
Vander Zalm said the costs were based on 1981 costs, and expected the final figure would be higher.
The provincial and federal governments were to contribute $28 million, the municipality would finance $49 million through debentures, while the rest (about $154 million) would be provided by the private sector, mostly the two mines.
The town was expected to have a population of 5,500 to 6,000 by 1987 and 10,000 by 1990. “Tumbler Ridge will not be a company town,” said Vander Zalm. “The coal companies will pay by far the largest, although a fair share, to build and maintain the town’s services thereby avoiding the unfortunate syndrome of the company doing everything,”
Pat Walsh, the town’s commissioner, (or, as the Province called him, a “super-mayor”) had sweeping powers. “He is not only the mayor, he’s the council and school board,” Vander Zalm told a press conference, adding that the town would hold its first real election no later than 1987, he added.
Asked about Walsh’s sweeping powers, Vander Zalm said, “what’s undemocratic about getting a job done?”
The development of a new town was not favoured by everyone, but Vander Zalm said Tumbler Ridge would be superior to existing towns in the area and well placed for future tourism.
While the town site itself was small, the boundaries of the municipality were large—the largest in the province at the time—and included the coal mines, which would provide a large portion of the town’s tax base. “Tumbler Ridge township will include within its boundaries all major thermal and metallurgical coal properties already scheduled for development, as well as those proposed as likely candidates for future development,” he said. “With this long-term outlook, it is hoped that many new residents at Tumbler Ridge will accept the challenge of the North Country, but this time in the comfort and conveniences of a 20th century city.”
Vander Zalm was not a fan on company towns, but said at the time that Tumbler Ridge would be different. “Tumbler Ridge will not be a company town with a company store, a company hotel and a company school,” he said. “It will be a carefully-designed community with the stores, the shopping centres and all services owned by individuals as they are in other small towns across the province.”
“We took a look at all the problems, discussed the problems with the municipal councils of Chetwynd and Dawson Creek and the regional district up there and decided in this case, this was the only way to go,” he said. “A round trip of 100 kilometres or more each day from Chetwynd or Dawson Creek would be just too much for the workers.”
He said that the development of the town “need not follow any static blueprint, but will capture the natural beauty of that part of the country, affording a town centre; top recreation, health and educational facilities. We want Tumbler’s new citizens to look upon their new home as being permanent.”
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
