This week:

The bottom line

' Last week, Herby Squish and Syd
Silver began explaining a simple
yet effective quarterly management
plan. It would begin with Squish
and Silver matching the supply and
demand side of things, to make
certain the right quantity and
species of trees needed to fill sales
orders were cut and available to
the mill at the right time. While
this was being soried out, Sawyer
would keep an eye on proposed
sales for the next three months to
make sure Silver was not exceed-
ing the ability of the sawmill in
attempts to produce the required
product as ordered and on sched-

begins to fade

determine the next quarterly plan."

"That’s all fine and good," said
Sawyer after listening quietly for
some time. "But I don’t see any-
thing here that affects bottom-line
thinking. We’re going to be cutting
as many trees a3 we can to pro-
duce as much lumber as we can so
that we can put the maximum
number of dollars into Jovial’s
bank account. So this is a bottom
line plan, Right?"

"Not quite," replied Silver.
"When I do my initial survey of
the market, I’m going to have a bit
of information in advance and

Forestry
nsights

by. Tod Strachan, in consultation with Rod Amold and Doug Davies

lot of money in the beginning, but
dropping profits. and, eventually,
financiat ruin a few years down
the road. Do you see the differ-
ence?”

Sawyer pondered Silver’ Ss com-
ments, then responded by saying
simply, "Not really. We can make

ule. This week we begin where Pb ass hy

Herby Squish left off.

aving confirmed the alt
oH supply of .raw |

materials and the
mill’s ability to cut what is
needed," Squish continued, "puts
the ball back in Syd’s court."

"That's right,” Silver told Saw-
yer, picking up the ball right on
cuc. "I would phone my customers
and make changes to the orders
where supply or manufacturing
shortfalls had been identified. With
those adjustments made, I could
confirm the next three month’s
omers, and the work of falling,
cutting and shipping the lumber
could begin."

"This would leave Syd free to
begin exploring the market demand
for the next quarter," Squish inter-
rupted. "And the entire process
would start over again in ordér to

News in Brief

that’s where it’s different.

"Herby is going to tell me the
species and sizes available and I’m
going to look for sales for a var-
iety of grades and types of lumber
s0 I can sell what we have. Instead
of what we started out doing,
going out and finding big orders of
high grade lumber, forcing the
company to cut all the good trees
and leaving the worst."

"That’s bottom line manage-
ment,” Squish jumped in. "Cutting

and selling all your high value=

timber today and then finding
you're left with nothing but low
grade material that’s difficult to
sell tomorrow. The real bottom
line in that philosophy is making a

Many of the services previously handled by the Motor Vehicle
Branch are now available from licensed Autoplan insurance
brokers. Beginning Aug. 19, insurance agents were given authority
to issue personalized licence plates, new and used motor vehicle
registrations, out-of-province vehicle registrations, registration for
rebuilt and home-made vehicles, registration of changes to vehicle
descriptions, social service tax exemptions and estate transfers.

As of Oct, 19 those services will be handled exclusively by
Autoplan dealers. The B.C. Solicitor General says the change is
being made for the convenience of the public.

big bucks now and later adjust
production for a different market
and continue making big bucks."
"So every few years you leave
established customers in a lurch

and search for others," Silver
pointed out. "That’s no way to
establish a place in world mar-
kets."

Sawyer began to reply, but
Squish cut in. "Okay," he said. "It
works basically like this..."

Squish then. described..as. an
example the coastal timber licence
near Terrace. It consists of 40,000
hectares. On the average there are
450 cubic metres of fibre per
hectare. Using a little simple arith-
metic, then, there are 18 million
cubic metres of timber available.

But there’s a catch. There are
cliffs, sidehills and swamps, and
not every tree is straight, mature
and of_a species or quality that
makes it a valuable resource. Of
the 18 million cubic metres, only
six million cubic metres are
harvestable at a rate of 300,000
cubic metres a year. Also, those
harvestable trees are useful for
everything from pulp chips to top

grade export lumber. =.

"The trick," concluded Squish, "is
to harvest your trees in a respon-
sible manner. Your annual allow-
able cut allows you to harvest a set
amount of timber each year and
you have to try to harvest and sell
according to the mix of timber you
have. That way, you know you
will make the best possible profit

‘over an entire 20-year period of

harvesting.”

Then Silver took a turn. "Take
only the best wood in the first five
years," he explained. "And we
might have a serious problem in
the sixth, That’s the idea we’ve got
to plant and nurture in the mind of
Milton Jovial. and a few others.
Because the plan can’t work unless
everyone is a believer."

~ "Right," broke in Squish. "Our

logging contractors have to do
their job right. You know all too
well that if they mess up they
create a problem that becomes
yours, And if you don’t do your
job right we waste 2 valuable and
irreplaceable resource. You have to
get the maximum amount of lum-
ber with the least amount of waste
from each and every log."

"Okay. Okay, guys. I’m begin-
ning to get the picture," Sawyer
said finally. He didn’t want to be
reminded of his latest disaster and
felt by agreeing he could bring this
portion of their meeting to an end
and begin working on a few real
numbers. But Silver and Squish
were on a roll and wouldn’t be
deterred,

"Think of it this way," Squish
continued. "I know you want to
forget our recent disaster, but we
wasted a lot of wood by doing all

Terrace resident Kevin Canaday recently completed a course in

_ building construction and was awarded a diploma by the National

Radio Institute of Washington, D.C., a distance education agency.

The B.C. government has published a catalogue of its programs,
services and agencies that it claims is easy for the general public
to use. The B.C. Guide: Programs and Services of the
Provincial Government describes the programs and services of
ministries, Crown corporations and agencies, lists telephone
numbers and addresses, ministry acts and publications, and
contains maps and a key-word index. It’s available from the
Queens’ Printer in Victoria, 1-800-663-6105.

Ministry of Forests personnel in Queen Charlotte City will be
occupying new quarters early next year. The ministry announced
Aug. 13 that a new single-story building will be built for the
service, which now employs 44 people in a building designed for
30, The ministry says silviculture work accounts for most of the
staff expansion.

The Ministry of Highways and Transportation has called for
tenders to replace the French Creek Bridge north of Cassiar on
Highway 37. The project will involve replacement of a single-lane
Bailey bridge with a two-lane concrete bridge, requiring the
rebuilding of two kilometres of approach road. .

The
INCOMPREHENS IBILITY

Week of August 21.28, 1991:

service strike.

OTTAWA — The Canada Employment and Immigration Com-
that, in the event of a disruption in postal service, their UI
cheques will continue to be processed.

UI claimants have two options to return their report cards to
Employment and Immigration. They can choose to continue to
their cards at their local Canada Employment Centres.

UI cheques will continue to be delivered using the Postal

further developments.

to advise us in writing.

File

The following bulletin was received by fax at the Terrace Review
office Aug. 22. We think it has something to do with the response
of Canada Employment and Immigration to an impending postal

mission wishes to assure Unemployment Insurance (UJ) claimants

use the postal service to send in their cards or they can drop off

Service. In the interest of service to our clients, the Commission
will monitor the situation and will keep all claimants informed of

Readers able to ascribe some meaning to the above are invited

the wrong things. Then we had to
go out and cut more trees to make
up the difference, and those trees
we used to make up that difference
are gone instead of being a part of
the next order." a

And again, it was Silver's turn:
"It's no different than you spend-
ing your money foolishly then
getting an advance on your next
pay cheque to make up the short-
fall. It’s something that never gets
caught up. Each month, you're
short a little bit more, until finally
you're so far in the hole you have
to declare bankruptcy. You've
been living the life of Riley and
now it’s time to pay the piper."

"Is this beginning to make
sense?" asked Squish.

Sawyer hemmed and hawed for a
short while, wondering if the two
of them were really finished. Final-
ly, he admitted that Squish and
Silver had some very valid points.

"Yeah. It does," he said a little
sheepishly. "But who’s going to

_ convince Jovial?" .

"We'll just take it one day at a
time," Squish advised. "One day at
a time." Then, "We're going to
start with the plan we develop here
today. Both Silver and I have
numbers to compare. Then you tell
us if you can produce the material.
Then, with that information, we'll
write a responsible plan and sub- —
mit it to Jovial for his approval.”

"Good luck," said Sawyer. "Good
luck to all of us.”

Next week, Jovial has a look at
the plan. Will he notice there’s a
bit of his bottom line missing?

Letter

It’s not the
mill, it’s the
location

To the Editor;

I believe there is widespread
Support in this region for the pro-
posed Orenda Forest Products
pressurized groundwood pulp and
paper project. But it is also appar-
ent that there is widespread oppo-
sition to their choice of location
for the plant south of Lakelse
Lake, The question is, where to
put it?

The alternatives include Stewart,
Kitwanga... and Kitsault.

Bill Hayes,
Terrace

MORE LETTERS
ON PAGE A8