Vale asks for temporary housing at mine sites

Nickel mining company Vale is asking the city of Sudbury to allow the housing of temporary construction workers at its mines, mill and smelter sites in the community.

But the request has one city councillor worried the company may be thinking ahead to housing replacement workers during a possible future strike.

Vale spokesperson Angie Robsonsaid the company is having a lot of work done in the coming months and may need as many as 2,000 temporary construction workers at one time. Robson said the zoning change the company is asking for is simply to make sure those workers have somewhere to stay.

"We're simply looking for flexibility that if we require it in the future, that we'd be able to house these temporary workers on our site," she said.

Robson said these accommodations would only be for the next three years and not so the company can prepare for future labour disputes.

Hiring locally?

During the year long strike between 2009 and 2010, Vale workers slept over in office buildings, which lead to thousands of dollars in fines from the city.

Sudbury city councillor Claude Berthiaume said he wonders if Vale is thinking ahead to a future strike.

But he said this also raises questions about the billions of dollars in construction costs Valehas saidits investing in Sudbury.

"[Im] just wondering how many people they'd be hiring locally," Berthiaume asked.

"Are they are going to bring people in from other areas like other countries? Who knows what the plan is."

But Robson said Vale fears Sudbury won't have enough space for the hundreds of construction workers who will be coming to the city in next few years.

"We certainly see a risk that there may not be enough capacity in the community to house all these temporary workers, so we're simply looking for flexibility," she said.

Sudbury city council will consider allowing Vale's properties to be both industrial and residential sometime early in the new year.