A4 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 17, 2003

STANDARD

ESTABLISHED APRIL 27, 1988

PUBLISHER: ROD LINK
ADDRESS: 3210 Clinton Street Terrace, B.C. * V8G 5R2
‘TELEPHONE: (250) 638-7283 » FAX: (250) 638-8432
WEB: www.terracestandard.com
EMAIL: newsroom@terracestandard.com

What now?

CRUISE SHIP port?

Nope. Rupert's pretty much got that one sewn
up.

Container port? Rupert’s on the fast track with

this one also.
. Shopping mecca? Not likely. What with Wal-
Mart going into Terrace and Canadian Tire
there already, that city’s cornering the big box
Shopping experience in the northwest.

Retirement haven? Can Kitimat compete with
Parksville on Vancouver Island?

Quaint tourist theme? Hmm. Hard to go up
against Smithers and its Main Street.

The modern world knocked on Kitimat’s door
last week thanks to the Alcan-financed Kitimat:
Unleashing the Potential, a 138-page report
which basically tells the community it can forget
about relying on existing big industries to add to.
its economy.

Kitimat will continue to lose its traditional jobs
even if its Big Three — Alcan, Eurocan and Meth-
anex — spend big money on their plants. Capital
investment aimed at modernization nowadays in-
creases efficiencies at the expense of jobs.

In other words, that protective bubble over Kiti-
mat is gone and now the community must find
something else to replace it.

This must be a particularly galling report for the
folks in Kitimat. It was commissioned by Alcan
in response to suspicions the aluminum giant
wants to expand the sale of hydroelectricity it pro-
duces at its Kemano generators outside of the re-
gion. To Kitimat, it’s easy math. More sales
equals fewer jobs. —

5
a

Curiously énough, the report does not directly”

address the issue of power sales other than to say
the dispute between Kitimat and Alcan sends out
a “negative message” to potential investors. —

Well of course it does. That cheap and abund-.
ant Kemano power is what Kitimat is all about
and why Alcan came to the northwest. Future use
of this power will determine the future of us all.

Kitimat officials reason‘that should Alcan forge
ahead with power sales, it will remove the main
attractant for other industry to locate in Kitimat.
Alcan will therefore have unleashed its own po-
tential, leaving Kitimat to forage on its own for
investment and employment.

This is not to suggest things should always re-
main the same in Kitimat. They can’t and won’t.
Kitimat should do all it can to change its econom-
ic road map,, building new economic roadways.

But the issue of power sales must be dealt with

and soon. Leaving the matter unresolved will ©

only continue to paint an uncertain picture. :

And that puts the matter into the hands of the
provincial government. After all, Kemano power
comes from water and water is ultimately a pub-
lic resource.

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¥CNA a

Tory Cilembr eee Batew

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WE'VE REALLY
BEEN LOOKING ~
FoRWARD To THiS!
WE'VE BEEN COMING To
THE OKANAGAN FoR

YEARS Tus? To GET

AWAY FROM
iT ALL.

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WHERE DO
THE PEOPLE WHO
LIVE HERE GO To
GET AWAY FROM

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EVACUATION
CENTRES

Yanks, two Canucks OK

VICTORIA - When three
Americans and two Canadians
come to the conclusion that an
American claim against Cana-
da is based on “considerable
speculation and conjecture,
there’s still hope for Canada.

This in spite of the best ef-
forts of some dim-witted poli-
ticlans and former political
hacks to alienate our southern
neighbours by calling Presi-
dent George W. Bush a moron
and telling reporters,
“Americans, I hate those
bastards.”

Well, three of those
“bastards” and two Canadians,
comprising a panel established
under the North American
Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA), have ruled una-
nimously that the U.S. Interna-
tional Trade Commission

. CTC) failed to adequately jus-

tify its claim last year that
Canadian lumber, exported ta
the United States, is subsid-
ized and poses a threat to the
American forest industry.

__, The ruling is hatled a major,

" victory for Canada in the soft-

wood lumber dispute.

Then again, officials on
both sides say the trade war is
far from over, which is quite
understandable.

The powerful U.S. lumber
lobby isn’t about to admit de-
feat and the Canadian side
doesn’t want to crow too pre-
maturely.

The ITC's assessment of
what it saw as a threat to the
U.S. forest industry in May

FROM THE:CAPITAL.
HUBERT BEYER

2002 was a major legal argu-
ment, allowing the U.S. gov-
ernment to impose a 27-per-
cent duty on Canadian soft-
wood lumber imports.

Mike de Jong, British Col-
umbia’s forests minister, said
the ruling does not mean an
end to the duties.

“The ITC is required to
abide by those NAFTA in-
structions, but what result will
emerge is pretty well any-

_ body's guess,” said de Jong.

However, he called the rul-
ing significant.

“The fact that the NAFTA
panel has ruled the ITC could
not, on the basis of what they
had before them, even find the
threat of injury let alone actu-
al injury, is pretty significant.”

Carl Grenier of the Free
Trade Lumber Coalition in
Montreal had a more optimis-
tic view, saying, “this is the
most important ruling that we
have seen so far, This is the

beginning of the end.”

Grenier has been dealing
with the softwood lumber disp-
ute between Canada and the
U.S. in various incarnations for
21 years.

The three-Yank and two-
Canuck panel has given the
ITC 100 days to come up with
a more substantial argument to
justify countervailing and anti-
dumping duties on Canadian
softwood lumber exporters who
ship, on average, about $10
billion worth a year of lumber
to the U.S.

In true-blue American fash-
ion, John Ragosta, lawyer for
the U.S. Coalition for Fair
Lumber Imports, said the Ca-
nadian advance was more like
a “punt” than a touchdown.

The U.S. government, he
said, will have no problem
meeting the NAFTA panel's
demand to provide better evi-
dence to support the allegation
that Canadian lumber poses a
threat to the U.S. lumber in-

dustry.

“| don’t view it ag a, victory,

Wee y

‘ for either side,” he added

Assessing his remarks at
face value, I would say that
Ragosta is whistling in the
dark. However, I was con-
vinced, once before, that the
dispute was settled.

That was in the mid-80s.

The problem, it seems, is
that no matter how often the
U.S. lumter lobby loses, it just
keeps coming back, slightly
rephrasing its beefs.

Perhaps sensing that the

panel's ruling would go against
them, that same lobby last
week claimed it had found evi-
dence of Canadian subsidies to
lumber exports that would jus-
tify an even higher anti-dump-
ing tariff.

Meanwhile, the ever-chang-
ing world economy has at least
provided a small respite for
Canada’s forest industry.
Stronger lumber prices and im-
proving markets in Asia and
Europe have kept companies
such as British Columbia’s Do-
man Industries afloat.

Deman is still in business,
although 1,000 of its 4,000 em-
ployees are still without jobs.
The rest are employed at six
saw mills and two pulp mills.

In the long run, however,
B.C.’s forest industry needs un-
fettered access to the U.S. mar-
ket, which ironically, was sup-
posed to be the prime advan-
tage of joining NAFTA.

Since I am a pathological
oplimist myself, I'll give the
last word to John Allan who,
apgaking,op behalt.of lumber-y

c,

yar te

associations in B.C. Québec, .
Ontario, and Alberta, said’ the”
Americans have suffered a cru-
cial legal setback.

“This is the bedrock upon
which the subsidy and dumping
allegations rest, and this bed-
rock has now, in my view, |
been shattered badly by this
NAFTA panel,” Allan told re- -
porters. ”

[ sure hope he’s right.

Beyer can be reached at: E-
mail: hbeyer@cooicom.com.

Burying beef makes no sense

CANADA HAS so many rules
to safeguard our food people

could actually starve amidst

our surplus,

More than 700,000 people
use Canadian food banks each
month. Food bank staples in-

* clude bread, pasta, soups, and
* potatoes. Not included are
- steak, ribs, and hamburger.

Yet by the end of this year
we may end up killing and
burying 525,000 cull cattle
thanks to a single cow diag-
nosed with BSE. We can’t fig-

ure a way to use that much
‘perfectly good beef.

Besides the direct loss to
farmers of their cows, not to
mention all the time, work and

‘feed they’ve invested in their

livestock, the provincial gov-
ernments will pay about $200
to kill and bury each animal.

The first obstacle in dealing
with our country’s surplus cull
cattle is our shortage of
slaughterhouses and govern-
Ment meat inspectors.

You'd think our government
could could hire more govern-
ment inspectors from Great
Britain or the U.S. and foot the
payroll for an extra shift of
slaughterhouse workers. But
no. To Ottawa it makes more

my TALWAYS WANTED TO
d LEAVE MY MARK IN
EWORLD

THROUGH BIFOCALS
CLAUDETTE SANDECKI

sense to kill and bury half a
million perfectly good food
animals,

And we could not possibly
revert to old time methods
where a farmer butchered one
of his cows and sold extra beef
to his neighbours. Unless our
food is government inspected
it’s deem hazardous, | grew up
on meal butchered on our
farm,

Mom and Dad made sure
the carcass was handled prop-
erly, kept wrapped in a sheet
if there was any risk of flies,
otherwise frozen in a spare
room.

BR OF LASTING SIGNIFICANCE.

Saving he Teaco det TAG at Pub os Wea of ach wask a S210 Con Sr, ERY
a cna rs an |

Teraca, British Columbla, V8G SRA. Soe te
Stories, photographs, lilustrations, designs ahd lypestyles in the Terrace Standard ave the property of the
copyright holdars, Induding Carboo Press (1969) Lid. fs Mustration repro sarvces anc advertising

agencies.
Plaprduction In whote or In part, without written permission, fs spaciically prohibited.

Authorized as second-class mail pending the Post Oflice Department, lor payment of postage In cash,

Special thanks to all our contributors and correspondenta
for their time and talents

Mom canned sealers of
cubed meat to preserve it for
later Without an inspector over
her shoulder. I'd bet her meat
was better handled than by
some slaughterhouse.

But today, unless a gover-
nment-paid inspector has
stamped the carcass with an
“approved” imprint, the meat
may not be sold for human
consumption.

Nor can we donate our ap-
proved surplus beef to overseas
aid organizations without the
risk of stirring resentment
among the foreign country’s
own producers. Shipping our
donated beef into foreign mar-
kets could depress their local
prices.

Last year, according to a
report in the Western Produc-
er, the Canadian branch of the
Mennonite Central Committee
sent more than 39 tonnes of
canned beef chunks to foreign
countries including North Ko-
rea and Iraq, It’s unclear which
countries, if any, would accept
our beef after Canada’s BSE
scare.

Iraq will take the meat but
the meat would first have to
travel through Jordan. Since
our BSE incident, Jordan has

“H) BREAK OFF THIS ROCK.
AND CHANGE THiS OUICRIP”
. SOMETHING, FOREVER! IT WILL OUT
‘LAST ANYTHING ELSE
Rbo ll

banned Canadian beef. Is there
no alternative route for hauling
beef into Iraq?

Canned beef costs three to
seven times more to buy and
ship than vegetable protein
such as beans and lentils, ac-
cording to Canadian Interna-
tional Development Agency
(CIDA).

For this reason, grain and
vegetable oils are more gener-
ally shipped overseas for food
aid. In addition, for religious
ethnic, of economic reasons,
many. foreign countries prefer
grains to beef.

So that leaves us on our own
to deal with thousands of cattle
suitable for food, rejected by
countries such as the U.S. and
Japan solely because they are
over the age of 30 months, an
age when BSE could pose a
problem.

It would make sense for Ot-
tawa to put its $200 killing fee
toward feeding the animals
longer so slaughterhouses could
gear up and properly process
this edible commodity.

To bulldoze healthy beef
into a pit while 700,000 food
bank recipients scrimp on mac-
aroni and cheese makes no
sense,

WHETHER To
LANG OR cry’!

33

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