“Unless environmental studies are adverse,” the Parksville and District Chamber of Commerce has given the thumbs up to the proposed Raven Coal Project.
The chamber’s board of directors passed a motion of support for the project at a recent meeting.
In a news release, the chamber referred to the promise of jobs: “The Raven Employment Forecast totals up to 350 new, well-paying, full-time mine, port and transportation jobs and hundreds of indirect jobs in the Comox Valley, Port Alberni and surrounding regions if the project is approved.”
The proposed Raven project is located five kilometres west of the Buckley Bay ferry terminal. Project manager Don Berkshire asked for the chamber’s support in September.
Coal Watch Comox Valley released a report Monday called Raven Jobs — A Closer look, completed by labour market researcher Alice de Wolff. Coal Watch president John Snyder said Wolff’s report “takes an in-depth look at the job projections, and calls many of them into serious question.”
The full report can be viewed at www.coalwatch.ca
For more information about the company’s plan and its progress, visit www.theravenproject.ca