A6 Terrace Review — Wednesday, March 13, 1991

“Ted Strachan, Betty Barton

| Mari Twytord, Harminder K. Dosanjh

”

_ixed messages and confusion. This probably sums up
public perception of both government forest policy and
M-: the forest industry. Do we have enough trees, or are they

—timost all gone? Will forestry-based communities in this

_ province survive the next century? Decade? Year?

_” There was almost an opportunity to compare notes last week, =:
. Almost... but not quite. We had simultancous visits from representa-
- tives of the all-but-invisible Ministry of Forests 80-member Old

Growth Strategy Committee and highly visible New Democrat
MLA’s with the message, "It’s time fora change."
Meetings were apparently arranged between the Old Growth

- Strategy people and some local interest groups but the meetings

weren’t public and the strategy, if there is one, remains outside ‘the .

public record, — : .
. All that can be said about the Old Growth Strategy Committee is

_ that it’s 80 members are divided into five committees: Conservation,

Research, Values, Management and Policy. Along with a number of

_ other groups, they are supposed to make recommendations that affect,

at least in part, the future of our forests.
- Those other groups include our recent NDP visitors, of course, as
well as: the Round Table on the Environment, the Forest Resources
Commission, the Select Standing Committee on Forests, Parks and
Wilderness in the 90’s, and the federal Forest Resources Commis-
sion.

At any rate, the only recent forestry-related meeting of the minds
we can report on at this point is the March 4 meeting where we-

found. at the head table NDP MP Jim Fulton, NDP MLA and forestry —
- critic Dan Miller, NDP MLA and environment critic John Cashore

and NDP Skeena candidate Helmut Geisbrecht.

Presentations were offered by a number of concerned citizens and
representatives of groups that feel they have a stake in the foresis. In
general, their combined message was something like this. We should
log in an "environmentally friendly manner" to effectively achieve
what can honestly be called a sustainable yield — before it’s too late.
We should beef up the Ministry of Forests so they have a staff
sufficient for a realistic level of monitoring, and violaters should be
dealt with harshly; perhaps even by revoking their forest licence.
Smail, well-managed woodlots should become the norm, not the
exception.

Violaters of the past should be forced’ to clean up "the mess" they
left behind. Native land claims should be settled "now", before any
further tenure is offered, A complete resource inventory should be _
done immediately. Recreational boundaries and an overall site-speci-
fic integrated management policy should be implemented as soon as
possible. And any policy that affects our area should be developed by
a local steering committee representative of all special interest
groups.

The message here is ctose to a carbon copy of what might have
been. heard at other public meetings held by any of the groups named
above. And that should be a message in itself. The public, after the
fifth replay or so, must be getting tired of the dialogue and wonder-
ing if the action will ever begin.

VARGAS

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The view from
Victoria —

by John Plfer

VICTORIA — On their way
in to last Wednesday’s Cabinet
meeting, several Social Credit
ministers insisted that the news
media was-interested only in
sensationalism.

They argued that reporter.
should focus on the govern-
ment’s achievements rather
than material fed to them by
anti-Bill Vander Zalm snipers
who were lacking in credibility
or integrity.

And the news that a new
right-of-centre political party
was being formed by those.
malcontents was brushed aside
by several ministers as being of
little interest or importance.

By day’s end, they were eat-
ing their words.

The stunning blow to the
government delivered by the
resignation of one of Cabinet’s
most credible members, Fin-
ance Minister Mel Couvelier,
was a sensation which even the

_news media could not have

created.

And although Mr. Vander
Zalm and his remaining Cab-
inet colleagues put on a brave
face, they knew that the dam-
age caused by this latest in a

_ long line of political body

blows could well prove to be
fatal for their party and for
their own re-election hopes.

Some members of Cabinet
had backed Couvelier in his
call for the Premier not to take
an active part in the sitting of
the Legislature which resumes
on Monday.

The ex-finance minister's ar-
gument that it was unpalatable,
if not unethical or morally re-
prehensible, for Mr. Vander —
Zalm to participate whilst un-
der investigation for alleged

(Ex) Finance Minister Mel
Couvelier — Sounds like a man
who wants no more surprises.

_ conflict of interest made sense

to them, too.

But in the end, they chose to
accept Mr. Vander Zalm’s
stubborn refusal not to budge,
rather than to join Mr. Cou-
velier or to follow his lead.

Perhaps it is only a matter of
time before they do — such as,
say, after the results of the in-
vestigation by commissioner
Ted Hughes are made public.

How strongly does Mr. Cou-
velier feel about his decision
not to sit on the front bench’ at
the Premier’s right hand?

Well, on Thursday night, he
told a local cable TV inter-
viewer: ‘*I was not going to
follow that blind, strait-
jacketed, total-loyalty route.”’
And also, ‘I might find myself
blindsided by new revelations.”

Sounds like a man who
wants no more surprises, no
more lies.

The resignation of the highly
-respected Couvelier completely
blew out another intriguing
development within the soap
opera know as Social Credit.

On Tuesday, the day before
the shock resignation, half of
the Socred caucus met in Vic-
toria to prepare for the session
and to get instruction on how
to act for the new TV cameras
in the chamber. (The other half
met on Thursday in
Vancouver).

The first 80 minutes of the
meeting here saw Premier Van-
der Zalm and his prime hench-
person, former attorney-general
Bud Smith, tear into Jack
Kempf, the outspoken northern
MLA.

They were angered that the
day before, Kempf had told
reporters that the opposition
New Democrats were not do-
geymen, and really were not as
dangerous as Social Credit lik-
ed to preach.

The ugly and lengthy ex-
change ended when Kempf
shouted at Mr. Vander Zalm,
asking if the Premier wanted
him to leave. The Socred leader
said Yes.

Kempf left the meeting; and
if anyone is going to leave the
caucus inthe early days of the
legislative sitting, perhaps to
find a home in the fledging
B.C. Pacific Party, it may well.
be he, |

Parting Thought: Mel Cou-
velier and his wife of 41 years,
his childhood sweetheart Millle,
went to the movies in Victoria
on the night of his resignation.

Playing in town were Misery
and Sleeping with the Enemy

and The Grifters, all of which, —

not surprisingly, they avoided.
Perhaps it was appropriate

that the flic they did see was

entitled... Dances with Wolves.

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