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ARLY in May, Lands and

Forests Minister E. T.
Kenney announced the grant-
ing of a timber license
in perpetuity to the
Canadian Western Timber
Company, a subsidiary of Canad-
ian Western Lumber Company
Limited, covering 400,000 acres of
forest land on. northern Vancou-
ver Island and offshore islands.

The Vancouver ‘Sun, News-
Herald, Province and the Island
weeklies attempted to convey the
idea that the Coalition govern-
ment had two main considera-

tions in mind when granting this

and a similar license to Ameri-
ean Cellulose in northern B.C.

The first of these considerations
was the reputed desire of the gov-
ernment to ensure the implement-
ation of a new forest conservation
policy based on the Sloan Report
on Forestry and adopted as offi-
cial government policy through
the 1947 Forest Act. Briefly, this
policy professes the aim of. pre-
serving in perpetuity a forest in-
dustry in British Columbia. The
method to be employed is known
as the “working circle” which its
sponsors maintain will make pos-
sible the harvesting on a rotating
cycle, of a continuous crop of sec-
end growth timber. Hence “the
elaimed need for enormous land
acreage.

The second consideration is said
to be the encouraging of develop-
ment of new forest industries by
“responsible” firms .whose invest-
ments will be reasonably secure
by granting the licenses in per-
petuity.

Just imagine! The right to
hold 400,000 acers of land forever
is granted to one company for a

acre, or $4,000 in all. A flooded-
out Fraser Valley farmer with 40
acres of land pays, in some areas,
approximately $400 a year dyking
tax. Compare what the Fraser
Valley farmer receives for his $400

“a year and what H. J. Mackin of

27

Western Timber will get for
his $4,000. And, over and above
this, Mackin will only be required

to pay 16 percent of the going

stumpage rate for the actual sec-
ond growth timber cut on his 400,

. 000 acres.

the Coalition barters

' hus,

yearly rental of only one cent an -

DEWHURST

The Coalition steals our
forests for Uncle Sam

power to drive the machinery.
On Vancouver Island, nature has
bountifully supplied the first two
factors which the government has
handed over in perpetuity to the
pulp interests. But the job of sup-
plying power to the pulp mills
had to be undertaken by man.
This very expensive job has been
taken over by the Coalition gov-
ernment. :

There will be at least three
pulp mills with a total capacity
of 565 tons a day supplied with
power by the government-owned

bleached sulphite pulp, was con-
structed at a cost of $10 millions
(company figures). The bulk of
this capital went for the purchase
of machinery imported from the
United States. It commenced op-
erations in a very limited way
last fall, only recently swinging
into full production of 165 tons a
day.

Source of the raw material is

fir, cedar and hemlock slabwood
secured from local mills at ap-

“rhe Bloedel mi, producing un- «

tainly makes: H. R. MacMillan‘s

$1,500 per year profit on each em-
Ployee in his lumber operations
look like peanuts.

While it is true that these fabu-
lous profits are made from pro-
duction in a mill which utilizes
sawmill waste, providing a cheap
source of raw material, the profit
picture of the industry throws

some light on the reasons for the:

recent activity in respect to the
future of the forest industry. Also
the added cost of using forest-cut
pulpwood will be infinitesimal in
comparison to potential — profits.

_ Through legislation
lumbia’s wealth-producin

purporting to perpetuate British Co-
g forests, the Johnson govern-
er vast areas to big business.

: ment is actually handing ov

‘away the new forest which it is

supposedly conserving for poster-

AND in hand with its so-called
“forest. conservation” pro-
gram, the Coalition is spending
millions of dollars of taxpayers’
money in order to provide cheap
power (one-half cent per KWH

for. everything over 500 KWH)

for development of new forest in-

* austries.

The Elk Falls hydro-electric
power development, near Camp-
bell River is the government's
only big venture into the hydro-
electric field. All in all the Elk

Falls scheme will provide 100,000.

horsepower of electrical energy

which, in the main, will be for
_ industrial consumption. :

Prerequisites for establishing 2

pulp industry, outside. of , labor,

’ capital and a market for the pro-

duct are sources of raw material,
large quantities of pure water,

_B.C. Power Commission’s John

Wart plant at Elk Falls.

They are: Bloedel’s 165-ton mill
at Port Alberni which is already
in operation, Western Timber’s
200-ton mill to be erected at Dun-
ean Bay near Campbell River and
MacMillan’s 200-ton mill which
will be located some 6 miles south
of Nanaimo.

Surely, the Coalition is leaving
no stone unturned in its efforts to
secure the investment of Bloedel'’s,
Mackin’s and MacMillan’s “risk”
capital!

&

EXAMINE the profit possibilities. .
ae |

of the pulp industry, and you
will have a much better picture
of the “risk” being’ inicurred by
‘the big lumber interésts who are

brazenly, with the willing help of :
the Coalition, securing a strangle-_

hold on the forest industry of the
future. There is, as an example,
Bloedel’s Port Alberni plant, as
yet the only plant on Vancouver
Island in production.

-duction of $37.09

. profits.

proximately $7 a cord including
haulage. It takes two cords of
slabwood to produce one ton of
pulp, which sells for $130 a ton on
today’s market. Average daily
wage approximates $10.

Cost of producing one ton of
sulphite pulp (unbleached) is:

.slabwood (raw material) $14, plus

labor costs of $9.09, plus an estim-
ated $14 for power and deprecia-
tion (this figure is probably too
high). When the total cost of pro-
is subtracted
from the selling price of $130 a
ton Bloedel has a mere $92.91 per
ton left or $15,630.15 per day or
$4,767,195.75 for a 305-day working
year to cover advertising, selling
costs, administration, taxes and

These immense profits are made

cut of a working force of only 150

men, including those in the chip-
per plant. In other words, the
company makes, clear of the cost
of production, $31,781.30 per year
for each man employed. This cer-

For example, cutting cordwood
will require a considerable small-
er number of men than is now
required for present-day logging.
The workers will require less skill
resulting in a relatively smaller
wage bill. Again, pulpwood cut-
ting will not require such huge
capital outlay for machinery as
modern methods of logging.

And, most important in respect
the well-being of the people, is the
fact that the pulp industry, which
is the. forest industry of the fu-
ture, will employ far less workers

than the lumber ind
ust
present. sin ee

e
MANY Products are made from
pulp, such as

ne

Paper and paper eof: cats
kinds of wallboards and man

other items. But the industry Oe
ing established in B.C. does not
manufacture these pulp products
The pulp is shipped across to the
U.S. and there it is manufactured

into finished articles, For ex-

‘heritage of thé people te

ample, the Financial. Pest 1%
May 22 publishes figures show?
that Canada supplies 57 percent
of U.S. imports of pulp.

Pulp is the convenient form 1
which the forest wealth of 0
province is smuggled across the
line as a raw material for U: —
finishing industries, Comsequent:
thousands of Canadians are P
deprived of the jobs that these
secondary industries would PPO
vide.

Not only are workers deprived
of jobs under Finance Ministe?
Abbott's plan of specialized indus
tries producing semi-raw ™@
ials, but Canada is losing millio®®
of those “precious” American ©
lars that Abbott is supposed t?
SO concerned about.

job

Through the Abbott Plan, W?
is the Marshall Plan in canst
our forest industry is being at
openly and brazenly into the aii
omy of the U.S. The caPi |
vested in the pulp industry #87
dominantly American. The apes i
try is dependent upon the us: #6 2)
all its machinery and te?! re
ments. And the market, §? oe
main, is an American mar wet. T
province's pulp industry i$ only
outpost of a very lucrative
ican paper and woodrproc® ly
industry. Pulp will increasine
replace lumber as the domin@™
factor in the economy of thé P
ince and as a result the
economy of the province
increasingly subjected t? reet-
and bust” policies of Wal} i tne
The Coalition, subservient Na por
demands of home-grown mone gil ;
ists who are the partners me
Street, is bartering aWY oy

ican interests. Not one me
the government, nor any as
supporters in the jegislature oe
deny this charge. When t ey gad :
before the bar of public *" yal
seeking re-clection, ger ty
judge them guilty of -

the trust bestowed on the™
sure as night follows 4°7
will throw the Coalition
office and elect in ité