en ee Men et eres l This week: - Renegotiating a few contracts ast week, Milton Jovial informed everyone things L were going to change, and Herby Squish explained why. There was a serious lack of com- munication between Jovial Logging ‘Inc. and the logging contractors, and a chain of command had not been properly established to ensure effective management of the overall operation. As a result Squish was placed at the top of the management list next to Jovial himself, a fact skidding contractor Archie Skidmore found offensive. A forester in charge of a forest was one thing. But a forester "in charge of logging? Ridiculous. ‘Still, Skidmore eventually decided he might be able to live with the idea and sat in silence. Squish then explained some changes that were being made. Old contracts would be scrapped and -: new ones would be signed. The |: new contracts would address the communication problem by making pre-work conferences and weekly contractors meetings mandatory. And each contractor would be | required to advise all their workers operational information generated by these meetings. Here again, Skidmore got a little excited. It was a perfect example of how a forester would manage a logging show. How could a logger be expected to log if he spent all. his time in meetings? Squish was patient — he understood Skid- more’s old school of thought — and explained that the weekly meetings would require at the most a couple of hours on a Friday afternoon. Jovial was less patient. He decided the matter of Herby’s management: authority should be séttled once and for all: "Skidmore," Jovial said. "I want this to be perfectly clear. Herby Squish is your boss. I understand where you’re coming from... But I don’t care how things used to be. I haven’t achieved what I have in this world without taking the time. to fine tune each and every corpor- ate show. "Now I’ve disciissed this with Herby at great length and these are the facts as they exist today. We as a company make commitments to government agencies and to the public in general. And once we make these commitments they can’t be arbitrarily changed. We have to maintain the integrity of the company. ia "To me, it’s perfectly clear. Only one person can oversee the entire harvesting operation and that one person has to bea forester. The forester has to deal with Fisheries, Fish and Wildlife, Crown Lands, the Ministry of Forests... And the forester has to make decisions and commitments based on those deal- ings. "The bottom line, I suppose, is that the forester is responsible. If things go wrong, everyone is on the forester’s case... You, me and the province. So the forester, there- fore, must have the authority to ft manage the forest. | "If you have a problem with that, I only have one word for you... Tough." Skidmore didn’t like it. But he didn’t say a word. "Okay." Squish continued as though the question of his author- ity and ability had never even been raised. "How are we going to achieve all these things? Define areas of responsibility, establish and maintain open communication and establish and adhere to a spe- cific chain of command. "Well, it’s really very simple. All of us are going to agree here and now to cancel all old contracts. And then we’re all going to sign new contracts that have a few teeth." Without pausing for any interrup- tion, Squish continued: "This is in everyone’s best interest. Every- _ thing that has been discussed here today will form the basis of a Clause in your contract. Everyone . _ will know the rules of the game. Everyone will know exactly what they have to do, and how they’re going to do it. And if you all fol- low the plan, and anything goes wrong, I will accept full responsi- bility.” A long pause followed Herby’s final statement as the five contrac- tors assessed what had been said. Then there were a few questions. The Way I See It... by Stephanie Wiebe When the bell rang, she raised her fist in the air and let out a "whoo-whoop", then headed for - the door. It was over. June was finally fading into its last days, and school was out. She glanced back to see the rows of desks, naked without papers and books piled across them. No more long thick afternoons in stuffy class- rooms, no more homework, and no more pressures for a while. As she pushed out into the crowded hallway, someone slapped her shoulder and shouted, "See yal", disappearing into the throng. She shuffled her feet and thought about the year behind her. Grade Seven. Not long ago, the smell of chalk, sweaty gym strips and thick books had stained each slow dark day of winter. The irritating buzz of the clock on dreary Monday mornings; the scratch of dull pencils against lined paper; the stark florescent lights inside, against the grey afternoon outside — ail these had once spread the school year ahead to a distant length. But now the open arms of a fresh summer waited. She grabbed her bag from the hook as. she passed, tossed it over her shoulder and strode out through the heavy double doors. They banged together loudly, only to be pushed open again by the others, as they boisterously escaped behind her. She walked alone toward the field, feeling the high sun warm her shoulders as the chatter of excited voices grew distant. The gtass steamed from yesterday’s light rain. She walked past the monkey bars, stifling an urge to climb to the top and hang from her knees. That was for little kids. As she hiked, her feet became hot, and she stopped to pull off her shoes, scrunching her toes into the cool damp blades of grass. No more shoes til September, she thought hap- pily. The breeze blew a summery scent, enveloping her with thoughts of cold Popsicles and sun tan lotion on hot beaches to come. Suddenly, the feeling was too good to contain, and she threw her bag to the ground and kicked her feet high into the air, cart- wheeling in simple joy. Once, twice, around she spun like a wheel. Breathless, she fell back against the grass and looked up at the endless blue sky. The new summer stretched ahead forever. The thought of warm summer nights and sleeping late was delicious. She closed her eyes and thanked God for sweet July. With a contented sigh, she hugged herself, dusted off her pants and got to her feet. The back of her shirt felt moist and cool. She picked up her bag, and looked around. The school yard was empty now. Good. She hoped no one had seen her dis- play. She would have been em- barrassed, had anyone witnessed her laughing and rolling around on the field by herself. After all, ever on the last day of school, people expected a little imore restraint from a feacher. Forestry Insights _by Tod Strachan, in consultation with Rod Amold and Doug Davies All wanted assurance that the dollar figure laid out in the original contract would be the same. Skid- ‘more wanted to know if they would be able to negotiate a healthier contract if they were expected to assume greater respon- sibility. The answer to both ques- tions was, "Yes." Another pause, and then one by one, nods of agreement were offered... Except for George Fairlead. "I have no problem with my current contract," Fairlead said to Squish. "And there is nothing wrong with my operation... Like always, I’ve read the PHSP and I'm following the Logging Plan. I don’t see any reason at all why 1 should spend good time trying to negotiate a new contract. We can do that when my current contract expires.” Jovial suggested Fairlead might be making a mistake. "The woods have to be maintained properly," he said. "We have to have quality control... A high degree of utiliz- ation. These new contracts will ensure that." "T think it wil be alright to wait in Fairlead’s case," Squish told Jovial. "I’ve seen nothing to indi- cate any problems with his oper- ation so far. But George, you've got to understand from the dis- cussion we’ve had here today that I am Calling the shots, and I expect you to continue following the pian." "No problem at all," Fairlead responded. So it was done. Everyone but Fairlead would read their new contracts and would most likely sign. "I’m very optimistic,” Jovial concluded. "I feel far better about this whole operation than ] have for several days. Let’s forget about our disagreements of the past and follow Herby’s management plan. I’ve got an idea it’s a road that: will lead us all to success. "And Herby... When you're done here I want to talk to you about marketing, I’ve got a lot of short logs and lumber out their and I’ve got some marketing ideas I'd like to discuss." "Yes sir, Mr. Jovial." Letters to the Editor Corporate commitment, community priorities To the Editor; Who are the power people behind the scenes in Orenda? They have a lot of money but seem to know very little of the area, other than the fact that they believe they can make high profits from liqui- dating the aboriginal forest. Part of the muddle is the mixed signals coming from the provincial government, but the public rela- tions displayed by Orenda makes me doubt whether they are com- mitted to community. The region ‘must make a judgement as to whether they are here for the short-term to grab what they can and then leave, or to make a long- Pifer man Continued from page AG intrepid MLAs who tackled some members of the press gallery (including this correspondent) in a men’s doubles tennis touma- ment last weekend on the glori- ous green courts of the South Cowichan Lawn Tennis Club. But just because he is a pleasant fellow across the net, and an interesting one to talk with about life, liberty and the pursuit of politics over a vodka martini or ‘two, does not mean that he is — term (25 years +) commitment to community. We need community compora- tions. We do not need or want a capital influx from greedy grabbers who will make a few people rich, provide relatively few jobs for the amount of capital input, liquidate an aboriginal forest, and then leave when they can get richer else- where, The second priority for the people of the Northwest is to determine which community can best be served by having a pulp mill. . William Hayes, Terrace, immune from criticism for having made an error in judgement. (Incidentally, it is true that the Legislative Assembly team won. Besides Fraser, it included NDP leader Mike Harcourt, Municipal Affairs Minister Graham Bruce, former Speaker and Cabinet member John Reynolds and the Auditor-General George Morfitt. Out of deference to my gallery colleagues, they shall remain nameless).