The pendulum swings

A oorte one down. °

Early this week it became public knowledge that
Wedeene River Timber is in receivership. The company’s
sawmill in Prince Rupert opened on May 20, 1988, the
culmination of a dream for Terrace’s Williams family,
long-time loggers and experienced forestry people. It isn’t
known at this point if the mill and the 60 people who
work there will continue operating under a receiver. The
underlying question is why the business failed.

For understandable reasons Wedeene River management
is not returning our phone calls. On their list of people to
talk to, the press probably occupies a position near the
bottom.

A slump in the export lumber market is the official
reason being given for the company’s failure, and a
survey of the people who do export marketing for other
mills in the Northwest seems to support that reason. It
looks like were in for a rough ride over the coming year.
Could the early 80’s happen here again?

They certainly could. Reading the undertone of guarded
statements from the marketing people, the message is that
the production of export lumber has got to be in step with
market demand to keep prices up. Otherwise we’re in the
same dismal situation again: pumping out millions of
board feet of lumber that have to be sold somewhere,
prices plummetting, and finally a bottom-line cost-versus-
return decision that says the product isn’t paying its way.

Locally owned independent sawmills are vanishing like
spotted owls, and the people who ultimately make the
decisions about production and marketing — corporate
directors — have a history of viewing our region as a —
small part of a vast global ‘structure of economic rela- ~~
tionships. There is little reason to think that attitude will

aa have changed this time around.

B.C., with its commodity-oriented forest industry, has a
tendancy to choke on its own wood production in times
of slumping markets. The system is unresponsive to
changing conditions. The cut will go on, mills will come
and go, and in all probability the real question is what is
going to be left a year from now, the time that market
experts are predicting for the recovery of the housing
market in industrialized countries.

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‘ VANCOUVER — Rumbles

about the pending general elec-
tion virtually overshadowed
much of the annual convention
of the Union of B.C. Munici-
palities, which concluded four
days of sessions here on Fri-
day.

The 1,700 delegates from
around the province — mostly
mayors, aldermen, regional
district chairmen and their
senior staff — joined the media
in its ‘‘will he, won't he”’
speculation swirling around
Premier Bill Vander Zalm.

Not surprisingly, both |
Vander Zalm and NDP leader
Mike Harcourt fuelled the
guessing-game fires during their
addresses to the assembled
throng.

However, looking at the cur-
rent political climate, here are
some reasons why this scribe
believes the Socreds probably
will not — repeat, not — go to
the polls this fall:

1, The electorate is angry,
and they want to take it out on
somebody, anybody. Some
Cabinet.members think the
government would be wise to
step back and let the municipal
elections in November bear the
brunt of that anger.

A number of prominent local
politicians at the UBCM want
the provincial vote in October,
despite the confusion that

might create with theirs. They

would prefer to see Vander
Zalm take the heat before they
have to. ee

' 2. The NDP want it too
much, ‘‘and that’s the last time

we should go,’’ said one senior. ©

Socred party official. The poll-
ing figures still show a gap of

- about If percent, considered to .

The view from
Victoria —

by John Pifer

be too great a hurdle to clear.
3. They are not as ready as

_ they claim to be, and they are

having trouble getting can-
didates .in some areas, With on-
ly 42 of 75 nominations in
place, and only three of 11
Vancouver ridings accounted
for, the Socreds lag behind the
NDP in preparedness, _

4. NDP Premier Bob Rae of
Ontario needs a few months to
‘shoot himself in the foot’,
and thus aid the Socreds’
‘beware the socialist hordes”
argument in this province.

Anything Rae does to
honour his campaign promises
will be hammered prominently
out here, to feed the fear factor
in B.C. of what Mikey might
do.

5. Vander Zalm has learned
over the past eight weeks of
campaigning, described as town
hall meetings, that this is not
1986, and that his ‘‘charisma”’
will not be a factor.

In fact, there is one school
of thought which says that hav-
ing tested the waters, and find-

- ing that many would prefer to”

see him drown in it, Vander
Zalm will walk away, resign

and give the Socreds a fighting -

chance,
It’s not his style, True, he

‘has said he would do anything

to prevent a socialist govern-
ment, but would that include
removing himself as a liability?
Remember, he also has often
said that ‘‘quitters don’t win;
and winners don’t quit’’.

Stay tuned.

Herewith a note to clear up
the matter surrounding Pacific:
Press reports that I accepted

_money from politicians to host

30-minute TV interviews on
Rogers Cable Network.

As a freelance journalist, I
agreed with Rogers — for
whom I already worked — to
do the shows, under certain
conditions which I naively be-
Jieved. would not compromise
me. oe

Both the NDP caucus and
the government caucus were
advised by Rogers that a pro-
fessional (me) was available for
the shows at a fee of $75 each,
and on the understanding that
there was to be no scripting, no
direction of the questions to
come from the politician.

Rogers’ goal was to have
stronger, better shows; mine
was to further my television ex-
perience after 20 years in the
print medium.

Only two NDP MLAs and
three or four Socreds took up
Rogers’ offer from time to time
over the past two years. As
Premier Vander Zalm said
when asked by reporters about
this issue: ‘‘Why would anyone
pay to be kicked in the teeth?”’

Anyway, on some occasions,
the fee came directly to me
from the MLA’s constituency
association rather than through
Rogers..I was unwise to agree
to that arrangement.

Although I know ] gave no
favour either to the Socred or
NDP MLAs involved, still in
fact, the constituency pay-

ments went against the unwrit- —

ten rule about accepting money
from politicians. That raised
questions in the minds of the
public, and especially in the
minds of reporters and editors,
Also, I believe the fact that I

— Continued on page A8

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