Economics or politics? The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 5, 1997 - AS Union questions motives in extending the mill shutdown By JEFF NAGEL UNION officials here suspect West Fraser’s mill shutdown is driven more by a need to put pressure on the government than an effort to stop mounling losses, IWA Canada local 1-71 spokesman Surinder Malhoira lashed out al the company last weck. “We don’t want to be used as a political foot-" ball by these people,”’ be said, ‘‘And that’s the fecling right now. — that the workers are being used and abused by the company at this time.’’ Malhotra called on the NDP government to look al the company’s books and address those suspicions. “Somebody should come in and see if they need relief,"* he said, ‘Dave Haggard, the new president-elect of IWA-Canada, also suggested last week that some of the union’s members aren’t working right now because of ‘“‘politics’’, Malhotra’ pointed to West Fraser's very profitable bottom Line in 1996, The company recorded $46.5 million in net earings in the third quarter — more than any - other B.C. forest company. “Hf this company is losing money here, their other operations are making money. They should be able to survive this small downturn here.” “It’s all polilics,’’ he added. ‘tAnd some poor working people are paying for that.’’ West Fraser northwest operations manager Bruce MacNicol denies those accusations. “Tt's a very easy charge to make and it’s a difficult one to defend against,” he said. MacNicol says there’s more to the company’s finances than the bottom line. ‘West Fraser did fairly well last year there’s no doubt about it,’’ be said. ‘What the financial statement does not tell you is where the money was made, He said the company has a lot of operations — including building supply stores — that don’t invalve its timber holdings. The company isn’t prepared to go on losing money in one operation indefinitely, be said. ‘Regardless of what everybody thinks, we do believe in social obligations and we do take “We don't want to be used as a political football by these people.” those quite seriously,’’ he said. ‘‘However, the number one priority of any company is to make money, If you're not making money you can’t do ail these other nice things.”” Even though West Fraser warned of the pos- sibility of a shutdown through much of 1996, the shutdown and word il will continue in- definitely bas been bard on workers, said Mal- hotra, “It’s quite a blow,’’ he said. ‘‘People want to work,” he said. “They don’t want to be on UIC.” Malhotra said he has warned (he company thal it will soon start to lose valuable expericiuce. Already, he said, two maintenance workers have said they’re leaving town and maving to different communities. , “Without maintenance, you don’t ron: the mill,”’ he said. ‘“We don't want to lose our good people from this area,”’ 7 Malhotra said the shuldown will also have an effect on small business in town, . _ “People don’t spend that much money,” he explained. , Every week the shutdown continues, the local economy loses more than $150,000 in unpaid workers wages. “It’s quile a bit of money,’ Malhotra said. “It’s a big hit to the smail business com- munity."* kk kkk B.C. Forest Alliance chairman Jack Munro is dismissing suggestions that there’s some sort of conspiracy to manufacture a crisis in the forest industry, “T don't think anybody’s playing games,’’ Munro told The Standard. ‘'] don’t think that’s happening.’ Munro says there’s nothing to manufacture — that the increased costs to the industry are driven by what the provincial government has done in recent years. “The government just has to take some costs — primarily bureacuracy — the hell out of the Forest Practices Code and FRBC and every other thing.” “There’s just too much bureaucracy in there,” a SOME LOGS continue to arrive and get sorted at Skeena Saw- mills log yard while the mill is shut down. The wood was cut in the Douglas Channel area in the fall. It's being boomed around to Prince Rupert and then is trucked to Terrace for sorting. West Fraser's Scott Marleau says about 15 truckloads a day continue to arrive. The highest-grade timber is sent back to the company's North Coast mill in Prince Rupert for custom cutting. It means work In the yard for a small crew of three to four workers and a few truckers. West Fraser planning, management and support staff continue to wark during the shutdown. Cheques are in the mail to mill workers THE FIRST Employment Insur- auce cheques to laid-off sawmill workers here should arrive in the mail by this week. Human Resources Development Canada manager Shirley Kimery said West Fraser brought govern- ment workers in to the sawmill in December, before the shutdown took effect, to carry out a mass claim-taking effort. said, The laid-off workers will get 55 per cent of their weekly wages up to a maximum of $415 a week, she **& lot of people taken advantage of opportunities to take upgrading courses while they’re off,’’ Kimery added. ““We encouraged that,’’ The only hitch to the process, she says, is that some of the workers’ forms may have specified a Feb. 3 relurn date, return date blank. That’s the date West Fraser offi- cials had hoped to be able to reopen the mill when the closure was first announced in November. Kimery said most forms left the “There may be some guys out there that we missed,”’ she said. *They’ll stop getting cards and get a note telling them it’s their last payment, They have to let us know about that. Come in here and we'll make the changes.”” Meanwhile, loggers looking for work are facing blank job boards at the local Hire-a-Logger agency, - “There hasn’t been a work order come in since November,”' says the agency’s Burga Anderson. ‘‘People have quit phoning me for work be- cause there hasn't been any.” FRBC offers to pay for training, consultants CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD FOREST workers affected by the industry's difficulties in the northwest are begin- ning to wonder where Forest Renewal B.C. is. ‘This is a time where that big fancy forest rencwal money for training dis- placed forest workers would come in handy,’” says Burga Anderson of the local Hire- agelcy, Forest Renewal B.C, com- munications officer Amy Hart says the organization has offered its assistance in both the West Fraser mill shutdown and the Stewart area logging shuldown. She said West Fraser at the beginning of the shut- down tured down FRBC’s money to laid-off workers Hart said it was {cll al the lime the shutdown was not going to be long enough to carry out any worthwhile training. ‘West Fraser knows what options are available to them through Forest Renewal and hasn’t chosen to take advantage of the pro- door is definitely open.” In Stewart, Hart said, FREC is working with job protcclion commissioner Doug Kerley to help the community find long-term solutions. - Hart said FRBC’s Im- mediate Respanse Fund will extend Stewart up to $50,000 to hire a consultant a-Logger job placement offer Shutdown psychology hurts retailers LOCAL MERCHANTS are begin- ning to feel the effects of the six- weck-old shutdown of Skeena Sawmills. ‘And it's beginning to take a decper hold now that the company has said it won't re-start the mill this week as originally planned. “Tt has an effect on people’s mentality, and that makes the dif- ference right there,’’ said Centra} Gifts owner Sharalyn Palagian. Palagian pinpointed the un- ‘certainty of how long the mill will remain closed as the reason for the - change in economic climate. .*t's the uncertainty that comes when they say they’re shutting fo extend training down ‘indefinitely’,’’ Palagian said. ‘* ‘Indefinitely’ scares the hell out of people.’ Terrace and District Chamber of Commerce president Skip Bates agreed, “Is it going to be six months? Is it going to be a year? Or what?”’ Bates said what’s particularly difficult is that the trouble in the forest industry isn’t contained to just one mill or operator. Locals in the industry are grapp- ling not only with the West Fraser mill shutdown, but a complete log- ging shutdown in the Stewart area, plus intensified uncertainty about Repap’s operations. grams to this point. The to come up with an emer- “It’s not a good situation,’* he said. Sales of furniture, appliances, cars and any discretionary pur- chases are taking the hit first, Bates said. ‘‘Purchases such as that are likely to be delayed,”’ Bates — who is also manager of the Bank of Nova Scotia — said the bank has begun to see forest industry workers struggling to keep up loan and mortgage pay- ments. “We've definitely seen a trend in our delinquencies,” he said. And he said local banks aren’t holding up much hope for banner RRSP season. gency plan to try to draw up options, Also available, she said, is $100,000 to hire a forest sector specialist to develap a longer-term economic: de- velopment plan with a forest sector focus, *A lot of communities do economic development planning but don’t look al the forest sector,’” Hart said. | Skip Bates The Mati Bag ‘Anything goes’ can go Dear Sir: . Terrace has come of age. Last fall another new busi- ness opened it’s door and it’s just what our growing family-oriented community bas always necded — a sex shop. Oops, sorry it describes itsclf as a “‘marital aide’’ store, Marital, my wedding ring. It stretches credibility ta believe that such an eaterprise cares a bit about help- ing troubled marriages. Besides, in spite of what pop psychology pushes in Cosmo or Playboy a healthy mar- riage has no need for '‘sex aides’’ and an unhealthy marriage won't be helped by them. ' What I really want to know is, how did such a sleaze operation get a business licence? Were the city fathers aslecp, rubber stamping any and all business applications? Were they fearful of being described as puritanical censors? Are there no stan- dards as to who can do business in Terrace? What ever happened to the concept of community standards as guidelines for making decisions that affect everyone in a lown, , Well I'm community and I don’t welcome this bottom-feeder kind of business existing in a town ve chosen to live in as a way of escaping big city ‘‘any- thing goes, no one knows”? attitude. I also don’t like baving to explain to a precocious nine-year-old as we pass the store window on our way to the library what a ‘marital aide’ is. My generation created and lived by the slogan ‘‘if it feels good - do it.’ Naw several decades later that shallow philosophy of life supported by the pornography industry, Hollywood, most TY — sit- coms etc, — has produced a sex-obsessed culture in profound social disintegration. It has spawned epidemic, marital breakdowns, teen pregnancies and the cruel, cold-blooded ‘‘answer”’ of abortion. It has crippled our nex! generation. My Catholic faith teaches me that sex is sacred. Itis a gift (rom God given to a couple swearing lifetime faith fulness to each other. It exists as an expression of com- mitted love and an openness to having children. Stores like this have no respect for the real power and purpose of sex. Their slogan is anything goes — as long as it turns a profit, Speaking of profit, New Year's greetings to Terrace’s first sex shop — and here’s wishing you an early baukrupicy in ’97. Isobel Brophy Terrace, B.C. Quebec already has it Dear Sir: Just as many Canadians predicted five years ago, the imunber of immigrants choosing to settle in Quebec is declining by the year, sitting at an all time low in 1996 of 12 per cent, down from 22 per cent just a few years ago. Thus, the amount of moncy that Ottawa lavishes on Quebec for the settlement of immigrants must cor- respondingly be down, right? Wrong! According to the terms of-a special deal struck -be- tween Otlawa and Quebec, Quebec will receive $90 million per year, irrespective of the number of foreign- ers choosing to seltle there, Jt could fall to 90 people and they would still get their $90 million every year, under a deal which can only be changed with the consent of Quebec. So while Alberta and British Columbia, the provinces that are paying the country’s bills, receive $863 per im- migrant, Quebec receives $3,300. Distinct society and special status? They’ve got it now. Rob Hargrove Terrace, B.C. Consistency needed An open letter to Helmut Giesbrecht, M.L.A. Yes, Mr. Giesbrecht, B.C, Liberals during the May 1996 B.C, election campaign did say they would make cuts in order to downsize government. The NDP said they would not. Fair enough, The B.C, Liberals did say they would reduce corpo- rate tax (except for banks) in order to stimulate the economy and create jobs. The NDP said ‘‘no way” to tax breaks for big corporations, Fair enough. Guess what, Helmut? The NDP government is now doing the unmentionable let alone the unthinkable and is making massive cuts to government including the sacred areas of health and educalion which the NDP said they would not touch. Northwest Community College president Michael Hill was quoted in The Terrace Standard, Dec. 11, 1996 on the front page ‘‘...lhat the college will prob- able chop 15 to 20 full time equivalent positions’. The NDP government is also giving tax breaks — tax breaks you say — to big corporations. Some examples: Evans Forest Products of Golden, B.C, received $21.5 million dollars; Canadian Airlines received $8 - $9 mil- lion dollars. And how many millions did the NDP government give to the railways? Where will these breaches of NDP philosophy end since the NDP government is now doing exactly what it said it would never do as a government? Is this Dipping and flopping (I won't use the ‘‘lying’’ word) getting to sound all too familiar? Talk about being inconsistent! Rick Womey Kitimat, B.C. In business Dear Sir: , I wish to add to the information contained in your Dec. 30, 1996 issue concerning the closure of a day care centre and after school care centre. The article stated there was no other after school care service of its kind in the cily. In fact, we applied for an alter school licence last year and obtained it just before the end of 1996, , ; Nell Courtney, King's Castle, Terrace, B,C. The Terrace Standard welcomes Ie:- ters by mail to 3210 Clinton St, Ter- race, B.C. V8G 5R2, by fax to 250-638- 8432 or by e-mail to standard@kermode.net