Dragon Boat West

http://www.theprovince.com/Debt+ridden+Tinto+digs+deep+workforce/1060335/story.html


Multinational mining firm Rio Tinto, struggling with about $40 billion US in debt, said yesterday it would cut 13 per cent of its workforce.

Its Canadian employees -- including those working for Montreal-based Rio Tinto Alcan -- won't know the impact of the announcement until early in the new year, a company spokesman said.

"We are not detailing [job or production cuts] any further other than the overall global figures that were announced," Stefano Bertolli said.

The cutting process will continue into the first quarter of 2009, he said. The company's $2.5-billion upgrade to its aluminum smelter in Kitimat, B.C., will proceed but will advance more slowly as timelines for the project are revised.

"The money committed to it is still there," he said. "The spend rate will be a little slower to take into account market conditions and demand for our products."

All previously approved projects in Quebec "will continue to progress, although we are going to look at the spend-rate and timetables for the projects," Bertolli said.

Meanwhile, a report yesterday indicated Rio Tinto-owned Iron Ore Co. of Canada is putting on hold plans for an $800-million expansion to its iron-mining operations in Labrador City.

"All expansion programs are now suspended," a spokesman said.

Rio said it would reduce its global head count by 14,000, including nearly six per cent of its own employees and more than half its contractors, and increase the range of assets it was looking to sell.

"Given the difficult and uncertain economic conditions, and the unprecedented rate of deterioration of our markets, our imperative is to maximize cash generation and pay down debt," Rio Tinto's CEO Tom Albanese said. "We will minimize our operating and capital costs to appropriately low levels until we see credible and meaningful signs of a recovery in our markets."

After Rio Tinto took over Alcan in October 2007 -- becoming the world's largest aluminum producer -- about 26 per cent of the new company's assets were in Canada.

It doesn't look good does it? :(

Not sure what the contractual obligation Rio Tinto has to the festival in terms of committing to a certain number of years with a certain dollar amount every year to be the title sponsor; but with the global economic slowdown and decreasing demand in commodities (not to mention Canada is officially in a recession), this will impact Rio Tinto in the sense that they will probably look at any and all ways to conserve cash. Sponsorship is a luxury that they will probably look at very closely.

It wouldn't surprise me if they pull out, or severely curtail the $$ they commit to the festival. Overall, I think (& I'm speculating here) that you will see a sharp drop in the # of sponsors for the RTA DB Festival as many sponsors will look to conserve cash.

I would suspect that a lot of teams that have sponsors will find it tougher to get sponsorship for 2009 or see a drop in the $$ the sponsor is willing to commit.

The impact is that in the end, us paddlers will have to pay more out of pocket to cover higher race registration fees to make up the difference.

Worst case scenario, some DB festivals may fold or suspend for a year due to a lack of corporate sponsorship.

Also, as the effects of the worldwide economic slowdown begin to trickle down to the
"average Joe", you may also begin to see a decrease in paddlers and/or teams that are able to afford to be involved in the sport. It will be interesting to see if entry fees for the 2009 racing season will decrease in an effort to get teams to register for certain events.

Perhaps RioTinto will ask the Provincial or Federal Government for some kind of bailout ??   
 

It seems to me that a lot of teams that are looking for paddlers for the 2009 season
don't seem to be mentioning RioTinto Alcan as a race they will be participating in.
Is this really the case, or is RTA not being listed as a race that teams will be racing in
because it's assumed that "everybody" will be at RTA?  I'm assuming that there will be
a RTA festival this June. Does anyone have any info about where the racer's village will be this year? Have registration fees for RTA increased at all??

It's typically a given that teams will be at RTA, just because thats where most teams would really like to prove themselves, with a world class level festival.

Note also that some teams are made just for RTA. It's probably around 30-40% of rec teams races in this one festival only.

As for the location of this years racer's village, that info can be retrieved from the http://dragonboatbc.ca/ website when its updated closer to the event date. It doesn't look like the fees changed much. (http://dragonboatbc.ca/racing.html)

It would be a great pity if city of Vancouver were to lose such a high caliber of an event in the future.

I'll cry if the racer's village and marshalling area set up is exactly same as last year without a wider walkway. :(