Robin's Nest Cafe is expecting business to pick back up after shortly after the reopening of Vanscoy's potash mine in March. (Keenan Sorokan/650 CKOM)

By Harrison Brooks

Vanscoy mine reopening brings excitement to workers and village

Jan 31, 2020 | 6:01 PM

On Thursday, Nutrien announced that the Vanscoy potash mine will resume operations in March.

The news provided lots of excitement for the members of the United Steelworkers Union who have been out of work since November.

“It’s obviously good news. We are happy that Nutrien made the decision to start up again. We hope it’s long term, but yeah, (we’re) definitely happy to get people back to work,” said Darrin Kruger, staff representative for the union.

“Certainly (there’s) a sense of relief (among workers) knowing that they will be recalled back to work and earning a paycheque again and so that is always very pleasing for people. I know guys are happy to be coming back to work.”

Kruger said the three months spent not knowing when or if they would go back to work was tough on people.

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“Anytime people are laid off is tough, especially when there is no recall date and you don’t know what the future looks like,” he said.

“That was the concerning part so people didn’t know what the future looked like. And so now that they are recalled, there is some certainty for the future anyway.”

Having the mine reopening isn’t just good news for the steelworkers, it’s also extremely exciting to the local businesses.

“It’s fantastic. It’ll be great. It should increase more foot traffic in and around the village for all the businesses,” said Robin Odnokon, owner of Robin’s Nest Cafe.

“You just didn’t see some of the people that normally came, so it will be nice to chat with some of the regulars again and see them and see how their last four months went.”

When asked about the drop in business after the mine shut down in November, Vanscoy Hotel owner Betty Free said it was “significant enough.”

“November was the worst month. When they first got their layoff, it went down quite a bit. I didn’t realize how much it would go down with them not working but, wow, it was shocking,” she said.

“Typically November, December (and) January are kind of my slow months but this year they seemed to be a lot slower.”

Despite being excited for sales at their restaurants to pick up again, neither Odnokon nor Free are expecting business to spike immediately when work at the mine resumes in March.

“I would hope so but I might not be that optimistic that it would be right away, just because they have been out of work for four months and they are catching up still too,” Odnokon said. “But I would hope it wouldn’t take much longer than that for sure.”