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- This week:

Five years later —
the squeeze begins

“Ercpp erby Squish was in a
H contemplative mood as he

swung right off Highway
16 towards the entrance to the
sawmill. The predictable beat of
the windshield wipers failed to
keep up to the torrential downpour.
Dingy, low-hanging clouds hid all
but the nearest clusters of
autumn’s usually colourful display.
This was not a day nature had
filled with cheer.

This was not a day to meet with
RJ and argue forestry philosophy.

Squish drove through the gate,
past the proud sign boasting, "Jov-
lal Logging Inc., Cedarvale Divi-
sion", a sign that three-and-a-half
years ago seemed to optimistically
predict -the first of several new
mills in a new and flourishing
empire. But that sign had been
unveiled on April 24, 1991. Now it
was. the fall of 1994, and a lot had
changed.

Squish splashed through the
pond-like parking lot and pulled
into his designated spot. He picked
his way between puddies as he

half walked, half ran from his.

truck io the office entrance. Stop-
ping for a cup of steaming cofice
on the way, he headed for his
office to organize his day. The first

.item on his agenda was a meeting

with RJ to talk about future plans.

The arrival of RJ... that had been
one of the most significant changes
during his three years of employ-

. ment with Jovial Logging. Not

long after his somewhat famous
battle over bottom line logging
with Milton Jovial, Milton had left.
He. had retumed to his New York
office to reign over his empire by
phone, fax, modem and mail.

The company needed fresh blood,
he had said. And his son, Robert

John Jovial, known by close.

friends as Bobby and by business
associates and subordinates as RJ,
filled the bill..RJ had done a good
job, according to Milton Jovial,
with Milton's corporate flagship,

_Jovial International Plastics Cor- .
poration (JIP) in Milwaukee, Wis-

consin.

"Efficiency’s his game," Squish
recalled Milton’s parting remarks.
"He eats incompetents for lunch."
Was it bragging or threat? At the
time, no one was certain. No one,
that is, except Squish. And Herby
Squish had decided at the time it

would be wise to keep a little .

inside information a secret. If
nothing else, it would avoid unnec-
essary panic.

It was just after Jovial’s 1991
labour day excursion to the States.
"With RJ at the helm," Milton had
told Squish. "JIP is a true master-
piece. A prime example of ihe
power of free enterprise in action.
An efficient high tech production
line with a minimal number of
workers that ticks away like a top-
of-the-line Swiss watch. And with
every tick, the plant sucks in a
generous amount of cash at a
production cost that is the envy of
Wall Street."

These comments painted RJ as a

true genius. But with a little pry-
ing, Squish learned more. In col-
lege, Recreational Activities had
been RJ’s major. Golf, polo and
windsurfing his favoured activities.
In spite of that, however, RJ had
somehow graduated from univer-
sity with something far more valu-
abie. A real degree. RJ. Jovial,
Bachelor of Business Administra-
tion... A first rate efficiency expert
who had placed 36th in the class
of 86. A class with 38 students,
two of whom had dropped out
early in the final year.

And Squish recalled another
comment made by Milton Jovial
that, as far as he was concerned,
was a grossly miscalculated lic.
"My son," Jovial had said. "A
good looking boy. Great athlete...
Even better businessman. You'd
like him."

A tap at the door. Squirrel
opened the door enough to poke

-her head through and announced:

"Mercy called. RJ’s waiting."
"Thank you dear," Squish

returned. And began to collect his’

Insights

Terrace Review —— Wednesday, October 16, 1991 7

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

papers and thoughts in preparation
for the meeting he had decided
hours before could not be any
worse than the day’s weather.

With Mercy’s permission, Squish
walked through RJ’s open door. RJ
stood before a rain-spattered win-
dow, jaw thrust forward, hands
clasped behind his back. Looks
like a World War I general, Herby
thought with distaste. "Good morn-
ing RJ," he said aloud with a pre-
tence of respect.

Squish found an empty chair and
waited for RJ to respond. March-
ing to the pace of his own clock,

RJ turned after a lengthy delay and

walked silently toward his chair.

He sat down, screwed up his face :

and folded his arms, and stared.

"So I understand it’s time to devise

a new plan," he said finally.

"Yes it is," replied squish.
"We're three-and-a-half years into
our first Management Working
Plan and it’s time to begin working
on the next." ,

"What’s the time frame like?" RJ
asked.

"Well... We should begin gather-
ing data right now and be ready
for public review meetings in
about two months. By April of 94
we should begin work on the new
plan in earnest, by October of next
year we have to file our new plan
with the Ministry of Forests,
and..."

"Okay," RJ cut in. "Neither my
father or myself are pleased with
the way things are going right
now. You said three years ago that
we could safely high grade for the
next eight, and that fit nicely into
father’s plans to sell'in the sev-
enth. But you were wrong. Chang-

ing markets and regulations have
Meant declining profits and it’s
going to take longer to retire the
debt than expected. Your job now
is to buy us more time."

"RJ... It doesn’t work that way,"
Squish said in frustration. He had
been trying to explain the facts of
life to RJ for three years but to no
avail. He just wouldn’t listen. He
had statistical formulae for manag-
ing and predicting trends, and
neither facts nor common sense
would deter him from his ways.

"Quiet," RJ commanded. "I’ve
told you at least a dozen times
how you fit into the scheme of
things here. You're only here to

make sure the minimal contractual ”

obligations of the company are
met. Your job is to make sure we
do just enough planting and site
rehabilitation to keep the ministry
off our backs. See that roads are
built to a standard that will last
only as long as that particular part
of the operation requires and not a
single day longer. Every time you
avoid using a culvert, you add to
the net profit. Your job is to walk
the tight-rope of risk and make
certain that we don’t fall off. Do
you understand that?"

Squish sat in silence.

"Profits are down, in spite of
your forecast. There’s a glut of
pulp on the market. Pulp mills are
closing down left and right. New

regulations requiring smailer,
cleaner cut blocks are costing us.
Clear cuts now can only be 30 to
50 hectares instead of the 80 to
100 they once were, And these
smaller opening sizes mean more
dead road than anticipated... We’re
getting far fewer cubic meters of
wood per kilometre of road than
we did before. By comparison,
road construction costs per cubic
meter of wood have risen by 40
percent.

"Now my figures show we have

to get 12 years out of this oper-
ation... Not eight. That means you
Squeeze the system harder, cut
corners and costs, and write a new
five-year management and working
plan that will see us through and
retire my fathers debt.

"And then you’re going to write
a third five-year management plan
that looks just as encouraging as
the second. Because in the first
year of that third plan, the eleventh
year of our operation, we're going
to bail out... We’re going to sell
this operation, and you had better
make sure we can paint an opti-
mistic picture at that time... No
matter the truth."

"RJ... There are ways you can do
business here and never have to
sell," Squish pleaded. "But you
-won’t listen.” -

RJ scowled. Squish stood up
silently and left. He knew, as long
as he worked for RJ, there would
be no choice. Somehow, he had to
come up with a five-year plan that
would please both the general
public and RJ -as well. Not an
attractive job, but it could be done,
and it was time to get to work on
devising such a plan.

Pians to expand the Terrace
Public Library began to take

definite form in 1988, but
three years later city council
still hasn't put the matter to a
referendum, Last week council
met with the library board, and

- it appears a consensus on the

dimensions of the project is
near.

In last week's issue we printed
the first part of the history
surrounding the expansion
project. This week we bring the
history up to the present.

THE LIBRARY’ S
LONG WAIT...

February 20, 1991 — The
meeting of Feb. 18 offered some
optimism, There may be some
progress in the move towards a
fall library expansion referen-
dum, we were able to report.
City aldermen and the board of
the Terrace Public Library had
met behind closed doors to dis-
cuss, in part, the issue of an
expansion project. And accord-
ing to mayor Jack Talstra the
board was offered some hope.
He said the board was told that
the city had “‘no objections” to a
fall referendum provided they
could find 50 percent of the esti-
mated $1 million-plus cost

!

through fund raising or a provin-
cial grant... and could convince
the regional district to agree as
well.

Library board director Willy
Schneider said he was pleased
with the city’s. position and sug-
gested they might now make a
formal proposal to the regional
district board. A referendum
normally takes between three
and six months to establish,
which meant a November refer-
endum was still possible.

February 27, 1991 — The
board’s 1991 annual general
meeting. Willy Schneider
dropped from the race and vice-
chairman Judy Chrysler was
voted into the chairman’s seat.
Before he stepped down,
though, Schneider, told mem-
bers that the Terrace Public
Library was currently far below
the provincial average of books
per area resident and additional

space was the only way we
could catch up.

For this reason, Schneider
said he was pleased with city
council’s apparent willingness to
now support a November refer-
endum that would determine
public support for the project.
The project, he said, was now up
from $1 million to about $1.2
million due to inflation but still
well within reach. He also noted
that their two-year-old expan-
sion plan was becoming dated
and might need to be revised.

Later in the meeting, librarian
Ed Curell cited a few statistics,
and it became apparent the cur-
rent building was “bursting at
the seams”, On hearing the num-
bers, trustee Francis Sabine was
quoted as saying, “The library
really has a need for expansion.” —
And he then noted their good
fortune that 1991 was to be the
“year of the referendum”,

‘March 20, 1991 — Another

city. proposal resurfaced about —

this time that focused some
attention on the library, but
seemed to take away most of the -
energy to. actually do anything
‘about it: the George Little

‘Memorial Park public wash-

rooms. The idea had been
around for a number of years but
in 1990 the city actually budget-
ed and went to tender on the
project. All bids were way over
the budget, however, so city
council set the idea aside until:
1991 budget deliberations when
they would simply put more in
the pot before going back to ten-
der.

On this date, though, a an inter-
nal letter written by a city
employee offered a taste of sen-
sibility. The idea was all wrong,
said the writer. A new building

— Continued on page 8

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