I refer to your letter of 14th September 1994 to the Honourable John Savage and previous communications regarding the termination of your employment April 6th, 1992 from the Nova Scotia Research Foundation Corporation (NSRFC). I have asked for a thorough review of the circumstances surrounding this termination as well as your allegation that the NSRFC has continued geophysical activities.
I have determined that when your employment as a geophysicist with NSRFC was terminated with an appropriate severance package in 1992, it was because that corporation had decided to end its geophysical activities and there was not another position in NSRFC for a person of your qualifications, capabilities and level of compensation. As you know, NSRFC had been steadily reducing its geophysical group from a peak of 16 people in 1984. The two people who remained following your termination in April, 1992 focussed on organizing an orderly disposal of NSRFC's equipment and previously collected data, as well as taking on other responsibilities in the organization.
NSRFC's geophysical survey equipment was sold or disposed of by the middle of 1993. Since then, NSRFC's specialist in gravity data and one technician have been organizing the gravity data collected from 1947 to 1991 into a single data base. This will be transferred to the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources when the work is completed in early 1995.
The NSRFC suggests that the disposing and organizing of previously collected data into a public database for reference by future mineral exploration is an orderly wind-down of a geophysical program that spanned 45 years. It is not a continuation of geophysical activity of the sort that you have implied.
I trust that the above information will allay your concerns. You may be interested to know that further changes in the NSRFC are planned which will result in the corporation becoming part of a new technology innovation corporation for the province. While this news may be of little comfort to your circumstances, you may wish to contact that corporation down the road concerning the potential for contract activities, should there be programs undertaken in your field.
Yours very truly,
Ross Bragg
Minister