EDITORIAL. :

- "Money should circulate like’ reinwater.”

N

— Thornton tie

0. community lives in -isolation, and the
smaller a community is, the more dependent

cept of "driver" and “driven” businesses, the final
report of the Forest Resources Commission articu-

lates that reality in a clear and compelling manner, .

. Without the sale of products to the world at large
from large resource industries, the businesses selling
to local people who work for those "driver" industries
— lumber, pulp and paper, smelting — could not
exist, because the people who work for those "driver"
industries would not be employed. In Terrace forestry
is the economic fountain that waters retail business
_ and all the local money-making activities that

‘employ people and sell goods and services, Which is -

why National Forest Week here tends’ to be an
industry-biased celebration. |

Although FRC chairman Sandy Peel may have
- been unrealistic in.calling for an increase in harvest-
ing rates at a time when the Ministry of Forests is

reducing annual allowable cuts everywhere, his —
conclusion that many of B.C. communities would.

cease to exist without the forest industry is inescap-

able. The report, prepared by B.C.’s Ministry of

_ Finance, states its premises and methodology clearly

and exactly, starting from the conclusion that there |

‘are some industries that are fundamental to the

economy of communities — basic industries — and .

there are others that provide locally consumed goods
and services — non-basic industries. The cycle begins
’ with the payroll of basic industries, and without that
nothing else would happen.

The report lays to rest the popular myth that

forestry, mining and smelting could .somehow be
replaced by tourism.. Tourism could not, possibly

support a community of Terrace’s size and prosperity. .

for the blunt. reason that jobs in the “hospitality
industry" don’t pay enough. People, even two-income
families, working for something just slightly higher
than minimum wage cannot purchase real estate,

. Terrace Review — May 1, 1992

its people are on commerce with the world -
beyond its boundaries. In putting forward the con-:

"new automobiles or as much of everything else’as
: single-income families whose breadwinner works at
' premium wages for a sawmill or a logging company.

Jasper and Banff are frequently held up as examples |
of towns that depend almost exclusively on tourism °
and do well, but closer examination reveals that their
permanent populations are small because the people
who work in their primary industries — tourism and
recreation — are paid so poorly they can’t afford t to
live there year-round,
The idea of a community trying to sustain an
economy in isolation is akin to a man trying to
nourish himself by eating his own body parts. Eco-
nomic growth and sustenance requires a steady flow
of money from the outside, another telling point of
the FRC report. Anything that brings income inward

' from outside the community is considered part of the

“basic” economy in the report, and that includes
money derived from: taxpayer-supported sources —
the government, Unemployment insurance, welfare,

‘pensions and the pay cheques of teachers and civil

servants lie in the "basic" category for that reason.
With that in mind, people clamouring for savage

cuts to the ‘ranks of the civil service, wage restraints a

for teachers and government employees, and freezes
or cuts to welfare and unemployment benefits prob-
ably are not looking ahead to the effect those policies

‘would have on the local economy. That source of

"basic" income could be viewed simply as our tax
dollars coming back home, but anyone who thinks
cuts in those areas would translate into a lighter tax
burden on individuals is either not seeing clearly or
totally ignorant of the manner in which governments -

operate.

In that sense ‘those of the political right who
would cut government services to the bone and those
of the political left who would reduce industrial use
of the forest to a small fraction of its present level .

_are working toward a common objective, eroding

elements ‘of our "basic" economy from politically
opposite. ends. There are vast improvements to be

_ made in all the "driver" industries, but let's not
destroy the thing they are driving — the support
system that allows us all to live here. |