EDITORIAL scrap Pelton committee _ The Social Credit government has announced the formation of a committee to study and report _on wilderness preservation in British Columbia. So much the worse for the future of B.C.’s drasti- cally declining prime forest stands. Victoria, as most readers know, has been under strong pressure to resolve the dispute over logging in the South Moresby group of islands in the Queen Charlottes. It has also faced strong opposition from Natives and environmentalists over B.C. Forest Products’ attempts to log the virgin timber on the Stein River watershed. And _ Meares Island, offshore from Tofino, remains the centre of a dispute between MacMillan Bloedel and the community. Only a Supreme Court moratorium has prevented, for the time being, the rape of that ecological and cultural preserve. Last, but definitely not the least, the Socreds are being pressured by Tex Enemark of the Min- ing Association of B.C. and several large forest multinationals to allow mining and logging in the estimated three per cent of the land in the provin- _ ¢e’s national and provincial parks. Faced with stiff opposition, Environment Min- ister Austin Pelton has placed a hold on the Stein logging project during the three-month delibera- tion period for the special committee. But he’s allowed “limited” logging to proceed on Lyell Island. - Consider the make-up of the committee itself. It consists of lawyer Brian Williams as chair, with geography professor W.R. Derrick Sewell, Uni- versity of B.C. researcher Peter Larkin, forestry professor Les Reed and Carrier Lumber presi- dent Valerie Kordyban. There will also be a representative each from the Mining Association and the International Woodworkers. _ There is not one representative of environmen- talists or Natives on the committee. It’s been termed another case of hiring foxes to guard the chicken coop, and with good reason. The Mining Association wants to dig pits in B.C.’s parks. The TWA, unfortunately — under Western regional president Jack Munro’s leadership — has been urging the government to log Meares Island and open up portions of Pacific Rim national park to wood operations, as a means of alleviating the desperate situation of thousands of jobless woodworkers. Given the weighted representation on the committee, there’s no reason to assume — as environmentalists have pointed out — that in its -study of 16 B.C. areas and the boundaries of eight parks, that it will make the recommendation that is vital for the future of this province — a per- manent moratorium on resource extraction in those areas. Certainly, B.C.’s problems won't be solved by the rape of its resources. In fact, British Columbians have no need of Pelton’s committee. It should be disbanded. In its place should be a firm government policy not to log parks and land claimed by Native Indians — land whichis vital to the heritage and culture of the Native nations of B.C. This province also needs a government that will recognize the issue of, and enter into discus- sions about, Native land claims. And instead of looking at the last stands of original forest to provide a handful of short-term jobs — and, not incidentally, fill the coffers of the forest barons — a B.C. government should be making corporations replace the timber they’ve cut through taxation and subsequent publicly funded silviculture, tree planting and other forest enhancement programs. Further, the export of raw logs should be halted, and instead, the devel- opment of paper and wood manufacturing enterprises should be established. That requires a new government, with new policies that will manage B.C.’s resources: with the future, instead of profit, in mind, and will put the unemployed woodworkers and miners back to work. ~ IRIBUNE Editor — SEAN GRIFFIN Assistant Editor — DAN-KEETON Business & Circulation Manager — DONALDA VIAUD Graphics — ANGELA KENYON Published weekly at 2681 East Hastings Stre: Vancouver, BC V5K 125 Phone (604) 251-1186 Subscription Rate: Canada $14 one year, $8 six months Foreign $20 one year, Second class mail registration number 1560 _— always know that an election isn’t too far away when the Socreds send out their bumming letters to business, even if it isan outdated list complete with spell- ing errors. In our case it came to Triburne People and Issues shop. With a massive rise in non-union capability, Stokes views open shop as the “sunrise industry’ while union construc- tion sinks into the sunset. “He will examine the factors necessary to operate open shops successfully and the ~ Publishing Company but, of course, with education cutbacks, it’s probably too _ | much to expect that the Socreds could In any event, it’s what’s in the letter that _ | counts and on the issue of an election, the |. Social Credit party is still playing pretty _ coy. “Will there be an election in B.C. in - 19862” it asks and adds: “It’s the most _ frequent question asked of me. And why The last question is the prelude to sev- eral paragraphs of self-congratulation in which the Socreds point to the “unquali- fied success of Expo”, the government's job-creating record and the “bold deci- sions” taken on Northeast coal, B.C. Place _and the Coquihalla Highway, indicating _ the direction that the government is likely to be going in the election campaign. Then there’s the usual appeal to free enterprise — the words appropriately printed in bold face capital letters — and the commitment of the Socreds to “reduc- ing the size of government and its invol- vement in business.” What makes it all laughable is that in the same paragraph, the letter praises the last provincial budget which involved the government more than ever before in pro- viding a whole new list of government handouts to business in electricity dis- counts, tax cuts and incentives. And now the Socreds are expecting the favor to be returned. According to this letter, “businesses similar to yours usually contribute $150 to $3,000 per year to our party.” Multiply that by the few hundred businesses that would likely contribute to the Socreds and it makes a pretty substantial slush fund. And you can be sure that all the blue-chip corporate donors don’t exactly get a form letter. No doubt the writ is ready, waiting for the coffers to fill before it’s dropped. * * * ust to show that there can even be moments of humor in the seemingly relentless campaign agianst U.S. efforts to develop new arms technology, an item in the Manchester Guardian Oct. 13 is worth repeating. The story centred on addresses to var- ious peace and British Labor Party meet- ings by Dr. Gordon Adams, a U.S. researcher who is campaining against Star Wars, arguing that it is nothing but a pork barrel for the arms contractors which feeds the arms race without any technolog- ical benefit. But as the Guardian noted, Adams finds some consolation in the recent decision by the Pentagon to abandon the Sgt. York artillery gun which, despite $1.8 billion in development costs, was doggedly incapa- ble of hitting its intended target, a Soviet Hind helicopter. The Guardian wound up the story this way: “Ata test last year, its radar, which was designed to detect the movement of helic- opter blades, picked up a fan turning ina portable loo (toilet). The army was reluc- tant to say whether they fired or if some- one was sitting on it. Or, indeed whether the twits hit the fan.” eb ake ek Fe time to time, consultant firms specializing in union-busting have brought their seminars to this province, hoping to peddle their formulas to com- panies in B.C. But in the construction industry, with unemployment running at 60 per cent and anti-union contractors like J.C. Kerkhoff and Sons leading the charge, the union-busting campaign can be particularly ominous. That’s especially so if the sponsor is the Amalgamated Con- struction Association of B.C. which repres- ents both union and non-union contrac- tors. The association’s annual meeting Oct. 16-18 at Whistler heard first from Premier Bill Bennett who delivered the keynote address, and later, in a special two-hour presentation on the final day, from Mac- Neill Stokes, billed as an “international authority on construction labor rela- tions.” This is how the association described his scheduled address in its pre-convention brochure: “MacNeill Stokes will give a dynamic presentation on the four driving forces which are causing the North American construction industry to dramatically change from unionized labor to open strategic planning and personnel man- agement which are essential for any con- struction firm to survive today.” * * * e was, as they say, “a talker”, who was always well-read and informed and convinced of the need to expand the audience for socialist ideas and to widen the readership of the Tribune. It was that conviction and persistence, no doubt, that kept him active throughout his 90 years. But it came to a quiet end for Hardie O. Young Oct. 8 as he passed away at his home in Victoria. Born in Southern Alberta in 1885, one of 11 children, he enlisted in the Canadian Army during World War I. His service during the war was to foster an opposition to war that remained with him throughout his life, underscoring his support for the peace movement. An early stint in the CN roundhouse in Calgary provided him with a trade as a machinist which later brought him to Brit- ish Columbia where he worked variously as a machinist in logging camps and as a railway engineer in Kamloops. Following his retirement, he took part in the successful campaign by CN retirees to win decent pensions for former CN workers. He was a long time supporter of the Tribune and had frequently contributed generously during the paper’s annual financial drive. 4 PACIFIC TRIBUNE, OCTOBER 30, 1985