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Why the North Kalum was Orenda’s first choice,

and why that choice was the wrong one

by Michael Kelly

_ Westar Timber had cutting rights
to most of the north end of the
Kalum Timber Supply Area in the
early 1980’s. It was part of the
massive Tree Farm Licence #1 that
came with a Prince Rupert pulp
mill and a Terrace sawmill, bought
by Westar from CanCel.

Arguing that the North Kalum
timber, mostly overmature and
decadent wood that had to be
logged and hauled from the middle
and upper reaches of the Nass
Valley and the Meziadin Lake
area, was uneconomical to process,
Westar asked to be relieved of the
northern half of its tenure. The
Ministry of Forests agreed and
requested proposals from other
timber companies and contractors
for use of the North Kalum wood.

What ultimately emerged in 1985
were three forest licences with
cutting rights to a total of a million
cubic metres of timber a year. As
a measure to improve the econ-
omic picture for cutting and mar-
keting the remote stands, the three
licensees were allowed unrestricted
selling rights, including the export
of sawlogs. The northern licence
went to Buffalo Head Forest Prod-
ucts, the Nass Valley section went
to Tay-M Logging, and the area in
between became the realm of
Orenda Forest Products.

Market logging of the North
Kalum was not supposed to last

forever for the three companies.
Each had to agree as part its
licence agreement to eventually
establish some sort of manufactur-
ing facility to make the timber into
something more valuable than raw
logs and create jobs and economic
stability for the people in the
North Kalum area, particularly the
town of Stewart.
_ A raw resource industry has
subsequently grown up around the
North Kalum, with people from
Stewart, the Nass Valley and
Meziadin earing their livings
from logging, trucking, trading,
marketing, exporting and
replanting trees. The situation
remained much as it was in 1985
until the past year.

Tay-M Logging was sold to West
Fraser Timber, owners of Terrace’s

Skeena Sawmills and half-owners °

- o£ the Eurocan pulp operation in
Kitimat. Buffalo Head continues to
run a market logging operation on
its 360,000 cubic metre licence.
But Orenda had decided it was
time to do something about the
processing plant obligation in its
licence. They proposed building a
183,000 ton-per-year pulp and
paper plant in the unpopulated area
around Swan Lake, at the south
end of their forest licence chart
area. A prospectus was issued for
public and government examin-
ation. .

The company’s choice of loca-
tion, however, turned out in the

end to be a bad one. After a
jengthy delay in the initial stage of
the Major Project Review Process,
Orenda officials decided to try
again, and the Northwest public
now has before it a proposal to
build the plant south of Lakelse
Lake on a designated industrial
site.

So what was wrong with their
first choice. And why make that
choice in the first place?

The reason. lies in the history of
the North Kalum tenure and the
town of Stewart. In. the post-
recession era of the mid-1980’s,
the Stewart economy was barely
breathing. The forest industry had
been virtually shut down by failing

lumber markets and the mining

industry was in no better shape.
The three new forest licences,
issued under conditions favourable
for the licence holders by the
"sympathetic administration” that
ran the Ministry of Forests at the
time, revived the community. Logs
poured through the port, sometimes
at a rate exceeding 400 truck loads
aday.

When Orenda proposed a pulp
mill for processing its part of the
North Kalum wood, the Ministry
of Forests wanted to ensure that
the benefits from the timber would
continue to enrich the area where it
was being cut. .

‘“The intent was to bring econ-’

omic life back into Stewart after
the Granduc [mine] closure,”

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_ Management plans,

Terrace Review — Wednesday, August 21, i991 5

s reasons for moving mill

recalls Graeme Hynd, timber man-
agement officer for the Prince
Rupert Forest Region. "The first
step was logging, then infrastruc-
ture.

"The site wasn’t specified by the
ministry, but something up in that
neck of the woods was being en-
couraged." _

Hynd said Orenda came to them
with about half a dozen sites in
mind for the new operation, all
within the Kalum North or Stewart
area. They eventually decided on
the Swan Lake site because it
offered the greatest economic
benefits with the fewest environ-
mental problems.

"We would not have had any
indication at that point that a site
in that area would be unaccept-
able," said Hynd,

On Aug. 15 the Major Project:

Review Process steering committee
released their review of the orig-
inal Orenda prospectus. The com-
mittee noted several problems with
the project, but deferred any rec-
ommendations because by the time
the review had been prepared
Orenda had already abandoned the
idea of building the mill at the
Swan Lake site. The committee
noted, however, that two issues
will continue to be of concern no
matter where the mill is located:
the sustainability of timber harvest-
ing on Orenda’s licence and the
acceptability of the mill’s technol-
ogy and the company’s waste

The most critical response to the
Swan’ Lake proposal came from
the Nisga’a Tribal Council and the
High Chiefs of Kitwancool, two
native groups that claim an interest
in the land on which the mill
would have been built. The
Nisga’a submitted a substantial

reply, prefaced by a note that the

response time allowed was -inad-
equate. They expressed concem

that the proposal would be "fast-

tracked" and called for a thorough
public review by an independent
panel. Nearly every aspect of the
proposal, from timber cutting and
forest management to the impact
of plant emissions, was a matter of
concern covered in the Nisga’a
brief.

The Kitwancool, in a one-page
jetter signed by chief councillor
Glen Williams, stated simply that
the band was opposed to the pro-
ject and advised Orenda to discon-
tinue planning, noting, "... we are
willing to stand in the way of any
building progress.”

Orenda stated that the mill capac-
ity had been designed around the
company’s annual allowable cut on
its forest licence and would require
no further wood supply. The
Nisga’a, several environmental
groups and the federal Department
of Fisheries and Oceans, however,
questioned the long-term sustain:
ability of Orenda’s current harvest-
ing rate. The DFO noted that if the
mill is established and the cut is at
some point in the future deter-
mined to be too high, the mill’s
existence would make it difficult
for the Ministry of Forests to cut
back the harvesting rate.

The management regime in the
North Kalum, including the annual
allowable cut for the whole Timber
Supply Area, is currently undergo-
ing a major review, expected to be
complete ‘sometime in 1993. The
steering committee noted that the
Ministry of Forests believes, based
on preliminary information, that
the present cut of 1.25 million
cubic metres per year can continue
for 30 years, after which it may

— Continued on page 22

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