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A10 - The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, June 25, 1997

MORE CARROT THAN STICK

Accord to boost
jobs, MLA says

THE JOBS and Timber Accord will result in more
people cutting more trees and producing more product,
says Skeena MLA Helmut Giesbrechit.

Describing the accord as ‘‘a whole lot of carrot and a
bit of stick’’, Giesbrecht said the stick could be
wielded if forest companies failed 10 create more jobs
or harvest the full amount of their annual allowable cut.

In the case of jobs, companies who failed to deliver
would find themselves shut out of FRBC money.

And failure to harvest the full AAC could result in
the reduction of that allowable cut.

Asked why companies would not
they could under the AAC ;
other than for economic rea-
sons, Giesbrechl suggested
they might be importing
logs instead or were perhaps
at their export limit for luim-
ber to the United States un-
der the current quota sys-
tem,

In the latter case, the com-
pany might be able to meet
iis AAC obligations by
directing excess wood to
other, smaller operations.

Giesbrecht was also
enthusiastic about the provi-
sion which requires the
major licencees to offer 18
per cent of their sawn lum-
ber to small, secondary manufacturing businesses at
“fair market prices’.

That, he pointed out, would increase the amount of
wood available to small operators by 70 per cent.

While be could not say whether those businesses
would be able to process 70 per cent more wood, Gies-
brecht said its availability would offer the possibility of
a consistent, long-term supply.

Giesbrecht said he was regularly hearing complaints
from local smail manufacturers about the difficulty of
getting the wood they need.

He predicted the government's job creation targets —
22,400 direct and 17,400 indirect jobs — will prove
realistic. The proof, he added, would be in the realiza-
tion of the figures. ‘“We will see if we are on target in
the next couple of years.”

The alternative, he pointed out, was lo avoid the pos-
sibility of criticism by simply doing nothing.

take all the wood

Helmut Glesbrecht

FROM FRONT
West Fraser to

ponder rebuild
of Terrace mill

pany here, as they are for
SCI,”’ he added,

MacNicol also noted that
pulp prices have been
edging upwards.

“Our mill is in @ much
more positive position than
we were six months ago,’”
he said.

Back then West Fraser’s
Terrace sawmill was losing
$1 million a month and
MacNicol was issuing dire
warnings about its viability,

So far this year, MacNicol
says it's actually running
slightly in the black, al-
though that’s partly due to
an earlier write-down of the |
log inventory here.

The log yard on Hwy16
West is virtually empty,
with the company keeping
only a one-day supply of
timber on hand to feed the
mill.

That’s because West
Fraser has already paid
Slumpage on wood it’s
logged and wants to log as
little new limber as possible
until Jower stumpage rates
take effect.

Asked about suggestions
earlicr this spring that West
Fraser might be prepared to
invest in a complete rebuild
of its Terrace mill, Mac-
Nical said it’s not urgent.

"That inill is mechanical-
ly sound,’’ he said. ‘We're
not letting it ga downhill.””

But he said a rebuild
would enable them to install
more efficient machinery
and get 4 better return on the
logs it cuts.

Whether it can justify such
a move won't be determined
for six months or so, he
added.

“We're going to want to
see how it irons out over the
next little while,’’ he said of
the government’s pledges,

MacNicol said the compa-
ny is concerned the govern-
ment is targetting union jobs

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in the accord, to the exclu-
sion of the non-union sector.

“A lot of people in our
company are nor-union,”’
he said. ‘‘We don’t think the
accord should be favouring
one group of people over
another group of people.”

By DAVID PLUG
Cariboo News Service
TAXPAYERS will have to
show Glen Clark the money
in order to spark explosive
job growth in the forest sec-

tor. ,
The target of the jobs-

timber accord ‘unveiled: in-

Prince George Thursday is
nearly 22,400 new jobs. by
the end of 2001 — a 20 per
cent increase in the total
number of  forest-sector
workers in B.C. ;
Another 17,400 spin-off
jobs are expected to resull
from the accord between
government and industry.

“This is equivalent to six,
seven or eight megaprojects. ..
No provincial’ government:

has tried to implement
something of this size be-
fore,” says Premier Clark.

“It’s about time we spent:"
as much effort — govem-.-
ment effort —- on creating “by the government's rules,
jobs as on protecting the en- -:
viromment. That’s what this ° FRBC funding and some of
announcement is all about.” .

Priming the job-creation.

engine will be government.

funds to cover the costs of

hiring more workers and im- ;

plementing the Forest Prac-
tices Code, ;
Forest Renewal BC —
funded by stumpage rates
set by the Crown — wiil
spend more that a billion
dollars over the life of the

Phone: 604-699-0878

ay

*-head ©

James W. Radelet
RADELET & COMPANY Barristers & Solicitors

Tax Law: Trusts» Corporate & Commercial
1330 - 1075 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, B.C, VGE 3C9

accord. That money will
cover $300 million per ycar
in Jand-based programs such
as enhanced reforestation
which will. create 5,000
direct and 5,000 indirect
jobs.

Another $50 million will
compensate companies for
Code-related costs of plan-
ning and road construction,

In exchange for the 3,000
jobs ‘created by a ‘shorter,
wortk week and reduction of
overtime, the government

will pay $20 million to as-—

sist industry.

Liberal. Paul Nettleton

‘criticizes the payroll subsidy,

as “‘arincredible gamble.”
‘*Long-term, well-paid
jobs are not created by the
use of public funds nor cre-
ated by holding a gun to the
of companies,’’
Nettleton says, ;
Companies that don’t play

he notes, will lose access to

their timber supply.

But Premier Clark, who
announced the details of the
accord inside Northwoad’s
J.D. Little seedling nursery,
defends using the ‘‘power of

’ government as leverage’’ in

the historic agreement.

The money paid out in the
payroll subsidy — up to a
maximum of. $3,500 per
new employee per year —

Fax: 604-989-1986

&,

4640 Lakelse Ave.
Terrace, B.C. V8G 1R2

Royal Bonk sta#f, Terrace branch, have finished yet anoth-
er extremely successful year of fund raising for the 8.C.
Childrens Hospital.

Total Amount Raised: $2,843.18
A BIG thank you to everyone who supported

ovr efforts and a SPECIAL THANKS to the
following businesses for their donations:

QVERWAITEA FOODS
COPPERSIDE FOODS
TOTEM BEVERAGES

The GRAND TOTAL from Royal Bank which was

presented at the Telethon was $200,000.

ROYAL BANK

Phone: 250-635-8000
Fax: 250-635-4625

TERRACE PUBLIC LIBRARY
INVITED YOU TO CELEBRATE OUR

30TH BIRTHDAY

_ TUESDAY JULY 1, 1997

1-3 P.M.

JOIN US FOR CAKE AND MUSIC. BRING IN YOUR
OVERDUE MATERIALS AND PAY NO FINES!

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE
CALLTHE LIBRARY AT 638-8177

YCANADA Xe

4 rl

Refers to Fabricland

ey 2 oo 6

Sewing Club Members

re
TOE

Ole es

will be easily returned to
government in increased tax
revenuc, “Premier Clark
says. ©

The shorter work weck
and overtime reduction will”
hot occur until-after unions
and industry’ hammer out
new collective agreements.
To get industry to hire
more people, the NDP
government: has agreed’ to
increase the available timber
supply, The province.’ will
réview the current annual al-
Jowable cut and work to

reduce the three million
cubic metre gap between it
and the actual harvest. The
higher harvest level will
‘create 3,900 direct and. an
equal number of indirect
jobs, according fo the ac-
cord’s figures. -

As well, the backlog’ of
uncut timber due’ to the fail-
ure of the Small Business
Forest: Enterprise. Program
— which collects 13 per
cent of the entire provincial
harvest — will be tendered

Premier heralds jobs accord

out, resulling in 1,500 direct
and 1,500 indirect jobs,
Those ‘‘new’’ jobs are an
example of the Premier
Clark’s shell game, says Mr.
Nettleton, The jobs from the
sinall business program, the
FRBC investment and the
increased" AAC would have
been crealed before, he says,
if they had worked properly
to begin with and. if the
NDP had made B.C, a good
environment for foreign in-
vestment.

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