Laid-off Minto mine workers in Yukon finally eligible for more compensation

A video recorded at the Minto mine in Yukon on May 12 shows workers gathered around to hear the news on what would turn out to be their last day of work at the site.

"Effective today, Minto Metals is in receivership," they're told by a manager at the mine.

That meant the approximately 180 laid off workers would have to apply for severance, and any other money owed, through the federal wage earner protection program (WEPP). Minto Metals was able to pay workers their final paycheques, but nothing else.

The problem, however, is that it would take Minto another two and a half months to actually go into receivership — through a court order in B.C.'s Supreme Court — which meant workers weren't eligible for wage earner protection until last week.

And things are still fuzzy.

"I've been working odd jobs," former Minto worker Derek Gignac told CBC News in a text Thursday. "Just enough to pay the bills."

Gignac says he's applied for WEPP but isn't sure what compensation he might get.

A former colleague of his, Eric Canuel, says he thinks he's owed somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000, through severance and an unpaid, scheduled bonus.

"Any communication that we've had, it has been between coworkers and some of the upper management," he said in an interview. "That's about it."

The lack of communication is not surprising — Minto's entire board of directors resigned the same weekend the mine closed — but it's been frustrating for the workers.

This is the third time since the closure, Canuel says, that workers have believed they have further compensation coming.

But that's depended on Minto going into bankruptcy. And that only happened after a contractor filed a bankruptcy case against the company in B.C.'s Supreme Court in June. Last week, the court ordered Minto to turn over its assets to a third party, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

So Minto is now in full receivership, and the Yukon government is encouraging mine workers who think they're still owed money to apply to WEPP, and file a complaint to the territory's employment office. The deadline for WEPP applications is on or around Sept. 18, the territory says — the federal government has yet to confirm — and complaints to the territorial office are due by Nov. 10.

Jaime Mellott, with the Yukon Employment Office, says workers are encouraged to apply to both offices because there could be some overlap, though she said the office is still examining where that overlap might be.

"We just want to make sure that any folks who are owed wages, as a result of Minto's bankruptcy, get all the wages that they're entitled to," she said Thursday. "So there's some things that the WEPP might not cover, that the Employment Standards Act, and therefore the office, would be able to recover."

WEPP is paid out through a federal fund, whereas the Yukon Employment Office would have to order the third-party receiver to pay out wages owed based on the complaints the office receives.

That could complicate things, as more than 20 applicants have $42.2 million-worth of liens against Minto, and court filings before the Yukon Supreme Court allege the company may still owe close to $20 million total to multiple contractors for services rendered. Those filings will now be dealt with through the receiver, not the courts.

If workers claim any money from Minto through the Yukon Employment Office, Mellott says, it's unclear where they would fall on the priority list.

It's also unclear what money PricewaterhouseCoopers will get from Minto's remaining assets. The receiver hasn't responded to calls and emails from CBC News so far this week.

The receiver will also determine what wages Minto still owes, and send that information to WEPP to determine who's eligible for further compensation through the program, and how much they should get.

"It's really confusing for people who do this for a living," Mellott said. "I can't imagine how confusing it is for folks who aren't immersed in employment law."

The B.C. court also ordered PricewaterhouseCoopers to pay the Yukon government about $1.77 million for unpaid royalties in 2021 and 2022, which the government will then give to Selkirk First Nation, on whose land the mine sits.

Whatever the total amount of remaining compensation workers will get, and wherever it comes from, the receivership order ensures that some money will be going to some, or all, of the laid off workers.