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manah speech

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Continued from page 1
tained in an original motion from the
party’s standing committee on the envir-
onment for a ecologically and economically
sustainable future, but dropped in the sub-
sequently amended resolution adopted by
the convention.

At the heart of the controversy was the
standing committee’s call for “a moratorium
on all logging in the Carmanah Watershed
(to) continue until a comprehensive regional
plan is in place for forest resource allocation
in the region... ..”

The resolution pleased neither the Green
Caucus, which wants the watershed pre-
served without conditions, nor the IWA
delegates, some of whom were reportedly
ready to walk out of the convention in the
event a moratorium motion passed. Both
sides hunkered down to work on a com-
promise, but failed to arrive at consensus.

The | Greens subsequently struck an
amended resolution urging that “the Car-
manah Valley be preserved in its entirety, in

recognition of its ecological significance and _
heritage value....” It also called for NDP >

government legislation protecting long-
term forest employment that “is not
dependent on the liquidation of old-growth
forests.”

Their resolution acknowledged the need
for “an environmentally sustainable forest
management policy” that reflected both the
IWA’s jobs-and-environment policy adopt-
ed in principle at its convention last fall
“and existing NDP policy.”

It never made it to the floor. Instead,
delegates debated a resolution calling for a
region-by-region planning process involv-
ing “preliminary discussions between forest
industry unions, companies, the NDP
government and public interest groups.”

The object of the discussions would be to
“schedule logging and preservation activity
in such as way as to maintain employment
and raw material supplies without jeopard-
izing the option to preserve or prescribe
special treatment in areas subject to

" resource conflicts.”

__ The discussions would recognize the
Brundtland Report’s recommendation to
preserve 12 per cent of “representative eco-

_ systems,” as well as the land base of work-

ing forests, the resolution stated.

No IWA delegates stood to defend the
resolution, which one Green representative
labelled, “a commitment to scheduled log-
ging activity” in the Carmanah.

But party heavyweights, including MPs
Dave Barrett and Bob Skelly, along with
MLAs Moe Sihota and Dan Miller, sup-
ported the resolution with strong speeches
that promoted setting policy for environ-
ment and logging throughout the province.

“The best environmentalists in B.C. are
the members of the [WA,” Sihota declared,
stating that the resolution “says never, never
again will the Socreds be allowed to divide
British Columbians.”

An impassioned Barrett won a standing
ovation when he said: “This resolution
demands that we do our homework (and)
look at the whole picture.”

Burnaby MP Svend Robinson, a Green
Caucus member whossubsequently won a
seat on the party’s provincial executive
council, defended the original resolution,
saying it provided ‘ta comprehensive way
(to deal) with land use conflicts.

“To adopt (the resolution under debate)
is to abdicate this leadership,” he charged.

In a reference to Harcourt’s earlier
remark, Robinson said: “We do not plan
| policy based on reading people’s lips.” He

said it allowed the option of logging the
Carmanah, and “I think that would be a
| profound mistake.”

He also reminded delegates that the
| Brundtland Report (Our Common Future)

DAVE BARRETT

calls for preservation of 12 per cent of the
total land base, not simply the resolution’s
“representative ecosystems.”

Miller put the question succinctly when
he urged delegates to remember that, “we
are on the eve on an election. . .let’s go for-
ward with a blueprint.”

The NDP is counting on becoming the
government in the next provincial election,
which may take place as early as this spring.
Under Mike Harcourt it has been seeking a
safe middle ground with the provincial
leader assuring business interests that he is
in favour of economic growth.

The message from the IWA is more
mixed. The union has adopted in principle a
plan for logging that addresses many envir-
onmental concerns, but has also hitched its
star to logging interests in battles over the
preservation of the last stands of unspoiled
forest, including the South Moresby chain
of the Queen Charlotte Islands and the
Carmanah valley.

In an interview later Green Caucus spo-
kesperson Adrienne Peacock said a victory
can be claimed anyway because Harcourt is
on the record as opposing Carmanah log-
ging.

“He said it: We’re not going to logit,” she
remarked.

Peacock noted, however, that there is
tougher policy on the environment and land
use in the NDP’s policy booklet and in
previous resolutions.

In a newsletter distributed at the conven-
tion the Lower Mainland Green Caucus
criticized the party leaders for allowing less
than one hour for debate on environmental
issues. Time consumed on debating the Sus-
tainable Development and Regional Eco-
nomic Development policy papers left even
less time for the Carmanah debate, the cau-
cus complained, and in fact only the first

ADRIENNE PEACOCK

motion of many on environment made it to
the floor. (However, the time for debate was
extended by 30 minutes following a conven-
tion vote.)

Green Caucus power made itself felt in a
later vote on provincial executive positions,
when IWA vice-president Gerry Stoney and
Connie Munro, wife of union president
Jack Munro, were defeated in their re-

election bids and replaced by Greens.

The convention also recognized Native
land claim and title through adoption of the
policy paper, “Towards a Just and Honou-
rable Settlement: Indian Land Claims in
British: Columbia.”

It committed the NDP to recognizing
aboriginal title and self-government and
entrenching self-government in the Consti-
tution of Canada.

Another resolution backed the Tin Wis
Accord which includes region-based re-
source development through the participa-
tion of Natives, trade unionists, environ-
mentalists and other groups. An emergency
resolution condemned Secretary of State
cuts to Native organizations and newspap-
ers and “‘the actions of the Vander Zalm
government which have led to these cuts.”

Other emergency resolutions condemned
federal budgetary cuts to women’s centres
and committed an NDP government to
provide core funding; pledged to rescind
any school referendum legislation; pledged
an NDP government would give “‘prefer-
ence” to B.C. fishermen in light of the recent
GATT and Free Trade panel rulings selling
out the province’s fish resource.

““We’re going to say no to (Prime Minis-
ter) Brian Mulroney. No to (the Goods and
' Services Tax). No to the fish giveaway. No

to funding cuts for women’s centres. And
no to funding cuts for aboriginal peoples,”
Harcourt told the convention in his address.

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Pacific Tribune, March 19, 1990 « 11