This week:

Deception lurks _
in the numbers

ast week we established
; that about one-quarter of

the 80.7 million hectares
of land in B.C. contains productive
forest that is both available and
suitable for logging. We also
established that under the Canadian
constitution provincial governments
are responsible for managing the
timber resources on provincial
Crown (public) land. This means
that the Ministry of Forests is
responsible for managing and
protecting our forests, except in
areas where the land is privately or
federally owned,

In B.C,, enacted statutes provide
for a legal framework for a system
of tenure which gives logging
companies the right to harvest
trees in designated areas, and that
system also passes on much of the

responsibility for forest manage-
ment to those companies. The
gauge for forest management is the
Annual Allowable Cut (AAC), a
number set by the Ministry of
Forests. The AAC is intended to
provide a balance between the
annual growth of wood and the
annual harvest of trees. The
government deiermines the AAC
from a Site Index Curve, basically
the height of one of a few test
trees in the province afier 100

_years of growth from which they

calculate the average growth per

year.
N numbers to see how the

system works. For this
example we’re going to examine a
fictitious Tree Farm Licence, but

ow let’s play with some

Letters to the Editor

by Tod Strachan, in consultation with Rod Arnold and Doug Davies

keep in mind that technically a
TFL is very similar to a Forest
Licence and a Woodlot. A TFL
allows a logging company to cut a
specified amount of wood in a
designated area, while a Forest
Licence — not a defined area —
also allows the cutting of a
specified amount of wood some-
where within the boundaries of a
Timber Supply Area. A Woodlot is
basically just a smaller version of
a TFL,

Towards a definition of ’native’

To the Editor;

In Webster’s dictionary, a defini-
tion of native is, "being the place
or environment in which a person
’ was bom or a thing came into
_ being; one’s native land." As
someone who was born and raised
in Canada, I think of myself as a
native Canadian. Why is it then,
that a native Canadian must pay
for medical plan coverage, while
native Indians receive not only free
medical and denta! for life, but
also free prescriptions and optical
costs?

A native Canadian must prove
that he or she has worked and paid
taxes before one is eligible for a
student loan, while native Indians
are paid to go to school, starting in
high school.

When starting a business, native
Canadians must almost use every-
thing owned as collateral to
receive government funding for a
business, while native Indians can —
obtain government grants to begin
a business, if it is 51 percent
owned by status native Indians,
and the foan will be "forgotten", if
payments are made for a certain
amount of time.

To own a home, usually both
husband and wife, in a native
Canadian family, work to pay the
mortgage and housekeeping pay-
ments, while a status native Indian
can receive free land and sub-
sidized housing.

Why is it that a status native
Indian can label a fellow native
Canadian racist or prejudiced while
Staging “all native Indian soccer
tournaments" or sporting baseball
caps that read, "Thank God I’m an
Indian"? -

When crossing the U.S./Canadian
border, we must pay duty on the
merchandise — a status native
Indian does not. Native Indians are
concerned about stripping the land
of its resources, while it is these
resources that put bread on all our
tables. .

Why is it, you may ask, that
we've heard very little on these

"issues from the non-Indians in the

past? If the government had
formed an organization called the
"Department of Non-native
Affairs", we would have been
heard from long ago.

Status Indians, with so many
benefits, demand so much, they
demand land and compensation
from non-Indians for any profits
made from living on the land, past,
present and future. If "what's ours

is theirs and what’s theirs is ours"
then we must demand that all
benefits previously received by
Indians, including payments for
self government and Department of
Indian Affairs, be deducted from
any of their future payments. All
benefits must be stopped — let
them earn their equality!
T. Riley,
South Hazelton.

A day for all Canadians

To the Editor;

Labour Day is people day.

People are what the labour move-
ment is all about... unions are just
people helping other people...
ordinary people acting together
because they realize the only way
they can win the kind of life they
want for themselves is by con-
ceried democratic action.

Jusi the fact that unions enable
people to exert some control over
their own destiny is a great thing
in our impersonal society.

Kuntz fund

To the Editor;

The Kuntz Support Group wishes
to inform all interested persons
that David and Sirkka Kuntz have
sold the last of their personal
effects and have moved to a new
address to cut travel expenses and
be near the lawyers.

David is working long hard hours
gathering evidence, and piecing it
together, in preparation for his
upcoming hearing in the B.C.
Courts.

The $6,500 we were able to raise
and pay to the lawyers has all been
used, and ihe balance of the orig-
inal amount of $25,000 is still to
be raised.

We are asking for help to raise
the necessary funds to pay the
balance of the lawyers’ retainer
fee. The sooner we get the money,

Unions were formed in our coun-
try over 100 years ago by Cana-
dians for Canadians to help work-
ing people toward a better life, and
they are still doing that job.

The first Monday of September
is Labour Day in our country. We
like to think of it as a people day
for all Canadians.

Wilma Costain,

__» President,
Kitimat-Terrace &
District Labour Council.

still active

to sooner the case will come to
court, and the sooner we get our
surgeon back in the Northwest.
Donations can be sent to P.O. Box
104, Terrace, B.C. V8G 4A2.
Anyone wishing to contact the
Kuntz family can write to or
phone:
David and Sirkka Kuntz
RR #1, Site 150, C44, °
Qualicum Beach, B.C.
VOR 2T0
Telephone (604) 752-1174
Should you wish to receive an
answer, be sure to send a S.A.S.E.
as the Kuntz family have been left
without two nickels to rub
together.
W.H. (Bill) Kennedy,
Randy C. Haigh,
Terrace.

For our example, we’re going to
log a 100,000 hectare TFL. The
Ministry of Forests has set our
AAC at 3.5 cubic meters per hec-
tare per year; a very realistic num-
ber in our area. This means we’re
all set to go out and cut 350,000
cubic meters of timber every year
for many years to come. From a
business point of view this is cause
for great optimism, but we might
have a few problems in the years
to come. No one really knows for
sure if the number 3.5 is the right
number for our particular TFL.
Remember, the number was deter-
mined from test trees, of which
there are very few, and is only an
average that is supposed to repre-

sent the growth per year for this

area. We don’t know if our par-
ticular plot of land is more or less
productive than the site of those
obscure test trees.

Still, we’ve got our licence and

our AAC and we're ready to.go.to

work. And we should be able to
make pretty good money, for a
while at least. We don’t have to
stick to the AAC, we can average
it out, All we need to keep in
mind is that we have to be within
10 percent in the first five years
and five percent in the first 10,
Also, in any one year we can cut
anywhere from 50 to 150 percent

of our AAC. In our TFL then,
with an AAC of 350,000 cubic
meters, we could cut up to 525,000
cubic meters of wood in the first
year... and we can cut it where
ever we like. In our TFL, we're
looking for some quick working
capital and so we’re going to cut
525,000 cubic metres of the best
timber we have in the first year. In
fact, we could even stretch this a
bit and cut that much timber in
each of the first two years and take
a bit of a rest for the next three by
cutting only 291,667 cubic meters
per year. All we need to keep in
mind is that we can cut no more
than 1.93 million cubic meters and
no less than 1.5 million cubic
meters in the first five years, and
between 3.33 million and 3.68
million cubic meters in the first ten
years,

ut what have we done?

Let’s do what we should

have done before we even
began cutting trees... let's take a
closer look at what we’ve got. Our
TFL, being about average for the
northwest, is made up of three
basic soil types and therefore three
different areas of productivity. Of
our 100,000 hectares, 20 percent
are good growing sites that can

— Continued on page A8

your intention.

PUBLIC
HEARING

THE FUTURE OF HEALTH CARE IN
BRITISH COLUMBIA

The Royal Commission is now conducting an inde-
pendent, detailed study of the provision of health care
in this province. As part of the process, a series of
public hearings is being held to give the Commission
an opportunity to hear the ideas and suggestions of
individuals, groups, and institutions. For this area,
the meeting is scheduled for:

Inn Of The West
Wednesday September 5, 1990
1:30-5:00 pm and
7:30-10:00 pm

You are encouraged to come to the hearing, If you wish
to make a submission, either written or oral, please’
contact the Commission immediately to notify us of

The Commission will make recommendations designed
to ensure continued access for all citizens to responsive
and cost-efficient health care into the next century.

IT’S YOUR HEALTH WE'RE TALKING
ABOUT. WE NEED YOUR INPUT.

ROYAL COMMISSION ON HEALTH

Mr. Justice PD. Seaton, Chairman
Oth Floor, 1285 West Pender Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6E 4B1
Telephone: 660-0165

Fax: 660-1098