Y TERRACE — Controversy has

. susrotnded the Practice of clear,

7 cutting for some time now,
Eved ’ nrore.” so recently” for

residents of north Terrace when -

they found the issue’ on their
own doorstep... |.

Homeowners. on. Woodland,

- ,Park Drive and Elderberry. and:

‘Blueberry:.' Lanes © ‘homeowriets--

have long. enjoyed their’ rural
“surroundings which included a

‘gtowth timber adjacent tg their
“ properties,:*.

‘However, all. that started to.
ichange on: Thursday, Oct.-1L.:

-, That's the: day loggers and their.

fall,

a

-Apart from, reduced aesthetic
values, the ‘residents fear, the

clear cut: ‘will leave their-proper-

ties more exposed to wind which :
~ would ‘in turn .make trees on

‘their land ‘More prone’ to
‘damage,’ will eventually lead to
“erosion” problems ‘—.- Spring
Creek runs through the lot —

sand .will reduce the value of ,

‘their homes,-
What has left the residents

feeling. ‘‘very, angry and
frustrated,  ” says ‘spokesman
Yvonne Whyte, is there is’

nothing they. can do to stop the
logging. :

’ The'reason for that is the
- acreage, is privately owned and

there. is nothing in forestry -

regulations to prevent the owner

— Roba Holdings of Prince
“George — harvesting and selling
‘the timber,

The’ damage is. done,’’.

Whyte conceded last week when
she and a delegation of residents
appeared _ before © council.
However, there remained. one

Deputy minister of Forests
Jrom 1978-84, Mike Apsey is
now president and chief ex-
ecutive officer of the Council
of Forest Industries of B.C.
COFI members and affiliates

cent of the value of forest
products produced in the
province.

Last week Apsey reviewed
the ‘relationship between
government and the forest
industry up to the point, that
disputes began over what to
do with. what .was now
recognized as a finite
resource. Below, the second
and concluding part in his
look at changes in the in-
dustry aver the past 30 years.

It was widely felt in policy
circles that public involvement
was the best: mechanism for
resolving those disputes, The
idea being that the more groups
involved in the decision-making
process, the more amenable and
acceptable the outcome would

be, Consultation of affected i in.
‘terests would create’ consensus

and reduce controversy. ,
And'so, tiot surprisingly, the
indusiry itself began: ‘td develop
a ‘capacity. to’ communicaie
directly with various publics,
At first, public criticism of in-
dustry practices was. perceived

wilhin the forest industry to. be |

largely the’ result of misconcep-
tion’ or misinformation. -It
wasn't that the industry wasn’t
‘doing | ‘the. technically correct
thing, it was just that sometimes
- people outside the forest sector
didn’t understand what was cor-
rect and what wasn’t. ;
Forest -circles were all abuzz
‘at this point. with talk about the
importance of communications.

_ The communications process we;

~ were-all: talkling about ‘was ‘i
“essence a corrective process: |

-was thought -to.“be mainly
- question of getting the Informa-

_.tion out: there. Once Wasi )

account for mnore than 90 per

values

’ ¢lon,
workplace. ‘and... tight": to:

Backyard clearcut

"further concern, The group

Wanted the’ city to take action -
-On,: that being, the clean-up of...
_ debris left at the end of the logg-
- ing: ‘Operation, v
oe Neglecting to ‘clean- sup. the’
* slash -would
_ danigerous - fire hazard to. our...

result: in’ .a

whole’ commiunity;: ‘particularly

since. ‘we do not have close‘ac-
cess ‘to a fire department,”! she &
pointed out,
‘near -80' acre parcel’ of second :

Council was presented with a

‘However, here again the city

. -gantiot’ “help. “There is nothing -
. ‘injthe. Municipal Act that gives
the: city the authority to control

cutting on private property,”’

’ administrator Bob. Hallsor exe

plained,

‘And. that. included clean-up
requirements which he said was
the responsibility of the Forest

Service.

‘Interrupting the heated ex-
changes which followed, mayor

Jack. Talstra told the residents,

“We're not going to argue

about it, all night ,here, We just
can't do it:!” ; ;

However, council did agree to
discuss the situation further at
today’s planning and public
works committee meeting.
Residents have been invited to

“send representatives to that
meeting and invitations have

also been extended té Forests
and. Environment ministry
representatives as well as Roba
Holdings owner Robert Ar-
rowsmith.,

Meanwhile, the trees continue

to fall,

55 ‘signature petition ‘calling’on °
: the city to advise Roba

Holdings they were obliged 'to _
Clean-up the site and to monitor
*the- situation to ensure they did.
equipment: appeared on district ~
-lot 978° and the trees began. to

y LADIES

TO: ‘THE TERRACE STANDARD.

IN THE EYE of a storm is where logging crews clearing trees in North Terrace find themselves,
Residents admit frustration at finding they can do nothing to stap the operation and are worried about
problems they will face once harvesting | is complete.

and agree,

The assumption was — and ]
think it was quite valid at the
lime — that majority support
for the benefits of economic
growth would translate into ma-
jority support ‘for forest sector
activities provided sufficient in-
formation was given to the
public.

The challenge was to activate
the silent majority. And infor-
malion was to be the key.

But just when we thought we
had it all figured out, another
development occurred and sud-

_ denly, life got a lot more com.‘

plicated,

It became clear to many of us
in the forest sector that public
opinion on forest issues — and,
by definition, public pressure
on government to intervene in

- forest sector activities — was

being driven not only by percep-
tions of what forest companies
were or weren’t doing, but also
by public expectations of what
they should be doing, .

-_ As we looked at it more close- _

ly,, the sociologists told us that
increasingly expectations were
being translated into vahies and
inta entitlements. or
“rights”.

Forest CHOeS: w were all
abuzz with talk about
the importance of com:
munication,

This was first evident on
economic-related issues such as
labour relations, workplace

~ standards and) compensation, It

became widely recognized, and“:

"indeed Institutionalized, in our

society that people had a
“right” to union representa-
a “right” ‘to a safe

Mike Apsey

responsibility.

In recent years this sense of
entitlement — or right — has
moved beyond economic issues
to include’ the environment.

’ Now people refer to the “right”

to clean air, clear water and a
pollution-free. environment the
way they once talked about
some of the other rights I just
mentioned,

‘Green’ is the world’s new
‘political colour, And 1 want to

make it clear I’m not talking
‘about the “Green party’. | am

talking’. about a political and
social phenomenon that knows
no 'political boundary or

‘tdeology; The maintenance of

environmental quality is aa
issue that. Margaret Thatcher,
George Bush and Deng Xiaop-
-ing-all agree upon. And Cana-

idian political leaders are

desperately trying to be seen as
‘the: ‘Breatest champions of this

* ew cause,

The; ability . of - industrial
technology to puncture the pro-

tective” mantle of the environ-

- ‘ships*.

note: ‘and more fie-
he realm of industry.

And then came sustainable develo

tion on environmental issues..
And the disruption of industrial
operations by special interest
groups bent on registering their
protests is becoming all too
common, -

The ‘Brundtland
Commission’s call for sus-
‘tainable development is perhaps
the most visible manifestation
of the transition that is occur-
ing.

It is an intriguing transition
because it marks not simply the
entry of new values into the
system, but more specially, the
attempt to integrate ofd values
concerning the benefits of
economic growth with new
values concerning the need to
protect the environment,

In other wofds, and as some

-have observed, what is taking

place ‘here is a rather complex
synthesis of forces that have at
limes been contradictory.
That’s what the call for sus-
tainable development is really
all about, Governments around
the world are now attempting to
develop -

mechanisms to formally in-

-tegrate economic and en-

vironmental factors in develop-
ment decisions. An ambitious
undertaking by any standard of
Measure and an extremely ex-

citing and demanding time for

those of us with careers in the
atural resource sector here in
Canada,

is Which brings us to the most
‘current stage in the relation-

“ poth economic

and” ‘environmental — expan-

ing. to Bush government to in-

ntd the et eto itself.

tee

=— -also known: BS

institutional -

pment

protectionism,
forest sector in Canada has had
more than its fair share of ex- .
perience with lately — and
Stricter control of environmen-
tal impacts such as a tax on pro-

something the

ducts “judges to be
“environmentally-insensitive”’.

And while it still retains its
old roles of regulator, overseer
and partner, government is in-
creasingly taking on the role of
adjudicator between the needs
of economic. growth and en-.
vironmental protection.

In reality, when you consider
all the factors now at, work in
the development of forest
policy, the framework we are
Operating under is more
fragmented,:.more complex,
more interdependent and more
vulnerable than any of its
predecessors;.

Interdependency is, 1 think,
the dominant characteristic of
this current. system and the

.economic and political realms it

reflects. It can best be compared

‘to some sort of interlocking grid

work where a miscalculation or
shock at one-point in the pro-

between the various. -
‘players ine influence forest sec- °

replace :.the ; aac that" has

1 Aples: ‘ofthis are trade -

striction in. the name-of job environmental

Green is the warld’s new
political colour and
Canadian | political
leaders are desperately
trying to be seen as the
greatest. champions of
this new cause.

cess threatens the stability of the
entire; thing:*. ee
_Hente the critical importance

of establishing: good: links of |

communicition between the dif-
ferent: parts):
Ong. thing: :

come to charactétise the ‘final

goals | ‘econo

_ Nass Valley, This is indeed a

-and never lie.

‘predominantly water based

‘| However, since they must

‘million to one billion dollar

J ciency: In power use and

; Proposition. :

“were “|
leaders?

Dear Sir: :

I must admit that I have
forgotten the number — of
times. Mr. Robinson. has

reiterated the promise that{ -

Native ‘land claims would
have no adverse. effect . on
npn-natives living here in the

soothing. thought and I’m

sure Mr. Robinson is a man
of his word. .As we know
from past experience — all
politicians are honest people

My mind'goes back to last
summer when a native road
block was erected. at New
Aiyansh, One of the non-
native women in the valley
was due to have a baby, The
band council office at New
Aiyansh was contacted and
asked if this woman would
be allowed through the road
block at her time of delivery,

She was told ‘‘no”’, no one
was allowed through the].
native road block for any
Teason and she would have to
hire a helicopter if she
wanted to go to the hospital,

The native band council
said they were not responsi-
ble for the road block and it
was not authorized by them,
Mr. Robinson was out of
town and could not be reach-
ed,

This particular situation
raises the doubt about the ef-
ficiency of native self-
government. Is it a common
practice for natives to run
rampant when their leaders
are absent? And is there no
one in charge when a leader
is absent?

It seems like there is a lot
of work to be done in this
area before our fears can be
completely put to rest.

Lloyd -Brinson,
_.Nass Camp.

System i is
unworkable

Dear Sir:

Over the last few months
there have been numerous
letters to the editor, the
British Columbia Utilities
Commission and B.C. Hydro
concerning the possiblity of
offering different rates
depending. on the time of
day. ;

While it is true that such
measures can be highly
beneficial in certain types of
systems, it is not valid in the

system we have in B.C.
Thermal systems using
coal, oil, natural gas. as their
fuel tend to operate their
base load plants on the
cheapest available fuel.

meet peaks in power demand
they construct other plants
which are more flexible and
can be turned on and off
quickly, but have higher pro-
duction costs and often must
use more expensive fuels.

With a hydroelectric
system the peak and base
loads are part and parcel of
the same plant. The fuel,
water, is the same and it is
simply a matter of running
more generalors at a given
time. Since the generators are
in place anyway to ensure
that all water can be utilized
as stream flows vary
throughout the year there is
basically no difference,
beyond some small transmis-
sion savings, in peak and off-
peek power.

In. order to achieve these
very minor transmission say-
ings we would among other
measures have to install new
meters to charge differen-
trates with costs in the $500

range or a 10 - 20. Percent

raise in general rates, 2.
“In other words we “would

not achieve any better effi-

customet’s rates would: go up
substantially. Iti isa lose/lose
_ Yours truly,

cw, J Boatman, ;
“Vice President Corporiite
“and Environmental Alfaits,.
“Ay S B. Cy Hydro.

Aimbot cpee falas