A6 Terrace Review — Wednesday, August 22, 1990 "Give it.to the bugs." — Newsroom comment on latest developments in Sustut-Takla forest licence. There seems to be no end to the amount of claptrap, doubletalk and misinformation the B.C. government seems to have at its command in attempting to justify the Sustut-Takla timber licence decision of 1988. The Kitimat-Stikine Regional District is currently investigating the cost of a legal action against the province, and although it would certainly be a doomed effort in terms of compensation perhaps it would be worthwhile if the recorded facts surrounding this interesting allocation of a public resource came out in the public forum of a _ court house. . In a letter pondered by a sceptical regional district board over the weekend, Premier Vander Zalm illustrates the manner in which history can be re-written with stunning abandon. Accompanied by an article that appeared in the latest issue of the Ministry of Regional Development’s four-colour glossy magazine B.C. Talks Business, the letter could act as the centrepiece in a museum of alternate reality. Both Vander Zalm and Forests Minister Claude Richmond claim that the social and economic benefits of giving the wood to Prince George were greater than those that would have resulted from the wood going to the Northwest, but in fact the Prince George woods industry is effectively being rewarded for mismanaging and over- cutting its timber by getting a licence that anyone who can read a map would know should have gone to Hazelton or Smithers. - The active Gitksan Wet’suwet’an natives collect part of the blame in Vander Zalm’s letter as well, but two weeks ago the Takla Lake Indian Band put the Prince George companies on notice that they won't get into the harvesting area until the Band’s proposal for 200,000 cubic metres of the licence is dealt with. =. Whether the B.C. Rail extension into the area turns out to be the "boon to the north" the B.C. Talks Business article claims it will be is still in question, but the assertion that there will be no public money in the line is blatantly misleading, If the timber companies pay inflated tariffs so B.C. Rail can recover the costs of rebuilding and operating the line, the tariffs will be written off the stumpage appraisal. What the railway gains in freight rates the Ministry of Forests will lose in stumpage. The one thing we won’t read in government publications is that a valuable resource was placed in danger because of this decision, and that danger is still there. The timber was originally put on the block because an insect infestation threatened to destroy it. If the cutting doesn’t start within the next year, much of the wood could be worth- less. The fundamental issue for this area is that Westar proposed invest- ments adding up to $20 million for Hazelton and Kitwanga based on that timber, development that would have meant a great deal to Terrace’s economic stability. And the cutting would have begun last year. We may still see the only user group in the north that didn’t apply for the timber get it: the bugs. BOYTCHA rey Sang COLLAB Second-class mail Established May 1, 1985 registration No. 6896. The Terrace Review is published each Wednesday by Close-Up Business Services Ltd. Publisher: Mark Twyford Editor: Michael Kelly Staff Reporters: Tod Strachan, Betty Barton Advertising Manager: Marj Twyford Typesetting: Carrie Olson Production Manager: Jim Hall Production: Charles Costallo, Gurbax Gill, Linda Mercer, Ranjit Nizar - Office: Carrie Olson Accounting: Marj Twyford, Harminder K. 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In compilance with the B.C, Human Rights Act, no advertisament wil! be published which discriminates agalnst a person due to age, race, religion, color, sex, natlonality, ancestry or place of orlgin. 4535 Greig Avenus, Terrace, B.C. V8G 1M7 Phone: 635-7840 Fax: 635-7269 One yaar aubscripilona: In Canada $39.00 Out of Canada $100.00 Seniors in Terrace and District $30.00 Seniors out of Terrace and District $33.00 Of ting Terrace Review. fing enn i AMAL SONYA PLASTIC SROTIED OWL... {TS USED TH SURE THE LOGGERS. AWAY Put yourself in Premier Bill Vander Zalm’s shoes for a - moment. He is facing two critical deci- sions — when to hold the provin- cial election, and who to change in Cabinet before the October convention or election. How would you handle them? Herewith some purely scientific Pifer theories about it all; then you are welcome to present yours, First; the election. Some of the hawks in the party and in Cabinet want it to be held almost immedi- ately, no later than the end of October. They say such a move would pre-empt the Social Credit Party convention in Vancouver (Oct. 11 to 13); and also could pre-empt any scandalous damage which ~ might flow from the Ombuds- man’s inquiry into the actions of former attorney-genesal Bud (This Tape’s For You) Smith. Others are adamant that the convention must proceed, and the party’s "Christianity clause" be dealt with in the wake of last year’s fiasco. The Socreds likely would score some points by addressing the reality that B.C, is made up of people with religious beliefs other than just Christian. But, many of the staunch, right- cous Socred brethren don’t believe a change is needed to the constitution which advocates following "Christian principles" in life. They consider that the "right way", and one even non- == Christians should accept readily. Thus the dilemma. Scrapping the convention for an election - would duck the issue and satisfy ' no one. Changing the phrase The view from Victoria — by John Pifer could raise the ire of longtime | _ party faithful. What’s your decision? Well, I believe the Socreds will hold their convention, and will update the constitution to make it more reflective of modern society. They know that even those upset with the issue have nowhere else to place their votes, so the government loses little in appeasing those irate at the pros- pect of maintaining the narrow Christian phrase. Now, given that the convention will go ahead, an election call is narrowed down to the week after it, or in the spring of 1991. (There are 28 days between the filing of the writ to the day of the vote). To call it any later than mid- October would bring a winter election, and the Socreds know that any Interior or province-wide supporters they will need do not fancy the idea of ploughing through snowdrifts to cast their ballots. That leaves the spring — launching an election campaign in late March, instead of calling a sitting of the Legislature where the government has taken such a pounding from the New Demo- cratic Party. With the Socreds praying for a downturn in the economy, for an end to the string of embarrass- ments and scandals which has plagued the government since 1986, and for a "big issue" on which to go to the electorate, they may well be wise to wait. Despite the efforts of the NDP and the media to remind them, voters often forget, or ihey re- member inaccurately, the various games and headline-shriecking scandals, and deal much more with the immediate at election time, and with their fear of the unknown. Watch for the Socreds to milk that fear for all it is worth, on everything from what the "social- ists" would give away in native land claims, to the "havoc" they would wreak with the provincial treasury. So, spring... unless he goes this fall! I made brief reference here last week to some Cabinet options for the premier — here’s a closer look. This observer still believes that Mel Couvelier will go from finance to health, that Norm Jacobsen will be social services minister (from labour), and that Parks Minister Ivan Messmer is the most likely candidate to become labour minister, although John Jansen, currently in health, also must be considered a con- tender. It also appears to be a given that Socred grande dame Grace McCarthy, who has said on several occasions that she would never sit in another Vander Zalm Cabinet, wil! do just that. One wonders if her recent assault on Ottawa, the GST and other tax- ation shows she wants to become minister of finance? If the premier wants a blind loyalist in the finance chair, it may well be Burnaby’s old-style politico, Elwood Veitch, now international business minister. It seems unlikely that ministers considered to be doing a good job in their new-in-November-89 ~~ Continued on page A7