Export tax finished |

A troubled year for the B.C.
lumber industry ended with a
mixture of optimism and anxie-
ty. The burdensome 15 percent
export tax on softwood lumber
shipped to the United States was
removed Dec. 1, but a dramatic
increase in provincially-levied
stumpage fees and the virtual
freezing of Section 88. credits
have imposed a new set of costs

that will effect mot only the
dimension lumber sector but
also pulp and paper producers.

The Americans. agreed to
remove the tariff only after the
B.C. Ministry of Forests came
up with an acceptable scheme to
increase . production costs to
B.C. companies to a level that
would protect U.S. producers.

“The exact factor of increase is
yet to be determined because
stumpage is calculated backward
from the market value of the
product, but it has been
estimated from four to eight
times the previous cost by
various sources in the forest in-
dustry.

Under the old system stump- -
age fees overall in B.C. averaged
less than $2 per cubic meter,
compared to. more than $17
(U.S.) for government timber
sales in the state of Washington.

The new stumpage fees took
effect Oct. 1, and eligible com-
panies will be rebated the export
tax amount paid from Nov. | to
Dec. 1 as a partial relief from

double taxation. - »

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‘silviculture planning will be.

‘under Section 88 of the Forest

export tax, Forest Minister Dave
Parker introduced legislation to
transfer responsibility for
reforestation from the crown to
timber license holders, ‘‘The
major licensees in the forest in-
dustry will assume full respon-
sibility, including costs, for
basic silvilculture. Pre-harvest

mandatory. Companies will be
audited to ensure compliance
and penalties will apply for non-
performance,” Parker said in a
statement Dec. 15.

_ The previous system allowed
companies to receive credits

Act for the costs of replanting
harvested timber land. The
credits were written off against
stumpage fees, effectively
transferring the cost of
reforestation and some road and
bridge building to taxpayers.

continued on page 23

Turbulent year in B.C. politics

‘Hold on to your hats; you ain’t seen
nothing yet,” was Premier Vander Zalm’s
promise as he wrapped up the first full ses-
sion under his '‘Fresh-Start’’ Social Credit
government.

It’s a motto that has his supporters reaf-
firm their belief in the man with the charis-
matic smile and boundless optimism, but
causes his weary opponenits to wonder where

a : he will strike next. For few premiers have s¢
‘ “delighted their followers an “sO enrage

Hubert Beyer their adversaries. .

in Victoria

To say Vander Zalm is an enigma is to call
a nuclear explosion a inconvenience. British
coves oon ss Columbia has ‘never had. apréemier °°...
like him; nor, for that matter, has the rest of Canada. The year 1987
under his leadership was proof of that.

Here’s a man who lives in a castle in his Fantasy Gardens theme
park, but is taken seriously by his fellow premiers. Here's-a

religious man who not only condones gambling but wants to in-—
troduce it in a much bigger way. Here’s a man who says he wants

labor’s co-operation and probably means it, but succeeds only in
alienating labor more than his predecessor, Bill Bennett, ever did.

Fired up by his impressive victory at the polls in the fall of 1986,
Vander Zaim started off the new year with promises of a ‘‘fresh
start.’ He was going to put and end to the province’s turbulent
politics of confrontation. He was going to usher in a new era of co-
operation.

Not yet revealing his hand, Vander Zalm promised an end to
labor strife which, he said, had always torn the province’s fabric
asunder. ‘‘There must be a better way,”” he said.

In the spring session of 1987, Vander Zalm produced the
blueprint for his vision of a more peaceful and productive British
Columbia. Bills 19 and 20 were introduced in the legislature.

If the premier had banned trade unions outright, the result

 couldn’t have been more explosive. Organized labor reacted swiftly
and with a vengeance, calling for a one-day general strike in protest

over the new legislation.

When Bill 19 was passed after one of the most bitter debates in
the legislature, trade unions vowed to boycott the act, which they
are doing to this day. Lo

To get the new labor legislation in place would have been enough
for most premiers. Not for Vander Zalm. The big news was still to
come. His privatization and decentralization programs, introduced
in the fall of 1987, were probably the most ambitious plans for far-
reaching changes in British Columbia in decades. Like all changes,
they triggered fierce opposition.

The loudest cries were heard when the highways ministry’s bridge
and road maintenance operations went on the auction block. Even
staunch Socred supporters began to have visions of an interior
British Columbia paralyzed by ice and snow-bound roads inade-
quately looked after by the private sector.

Decentralization, kicked off to the tune of $1 million for each of
the eight development regions established under the program,
creaied equally loud cries of foul when the premier had to admit
that there was really no detailed plans for its implementation.

Those blasted cleaning bills
Well, it looks like Premier Vander Zalm and his cabinet ministers
escaped the poor house by the skin of their teeth, thanks to an
$8,000 wage increase which brings the premier’s salary to $86,250 a
year and that of his .ministers to $80,250. Rumors that social

| assistance rates will also go up are just that, rumors. Hard times de-

mand tough decisions. | a
. Trying his hand at humor and perhaps giving due recognition to

the metaphoric mud bath British Columbians keep throwing at the

government, the premier said he needed the raise to pay for his ever-

mounting dry-cleaning bills. |

If was just as well that he didn’t cite a growing work load as the .
primary. justification for the wage hike. Several times toward this -
end of the year, the legislature rose early because it had nothingto ~~

debate: .
Official tree at last

 B.C.’s official emblems are growing in numbers at a furious pace. »

With the official bird; the Stellar’s Jay barely hatched, we are about

to get an official tree — the western redcedar, or thuja placata, for

you botanists. So .
Forest Minister Dave Parker says the tree will make an excellent

-B.C, symbol. All that remains to be done now is forthe government: ~~

tc make it official by amending the Emblem and Tartan Act.

So far, the government has no plans of selecting an official snake,
although there would be some excellent candidates amoung the 69
members of the legislature. —

,
s,s Homeless British Columbians...

According to United Nations standards, residents of rooming
houses and socalled residential hotels in British Columbia are con-
sidered homeless. The NDP’s Emery Barnes says the government
should place these facilities under the auspicies of the Residential
Tenancy Act, which would make them homes.

In doing so, Barnes says, the government could ‘‘create”’ 30,000
“homes” without actually contructing one single unit of housing.

Barnes’ request was accompanied by a word of praise for the
government’s decision last week to ban the carrying of knives in
bars and pubs, a move, he said, that would undoubtly save lives.

Can’t fight ‘em? Make ‘em join you
More than once, Eli Sopow got under the provincial
government’s collective skin by digging up dirt on its members and
spreading word of it via BCTV, the station for which he was chief
legislative reporter in Victoria.

Eli was the first to get wind of former highways minister Cliff

Michael’s conflict of interest’ which eventually led to Micheal’s
resignation as minister. Unable to shut him up, Premier Vander
“alm made Eli an offer he couldn't refuse. Last week, Eli started
working in the premier’s office as ‘‘co-ordinator of long-range
planning and policy development’’ at an undisclosed salary.

. Where’s the emergency? .
In 1981, the B.C. Legislature passed the Financial Administration

_ Act which, amoung other things, allows the government to spend

money in emergency cases without legislative approval.
Encouraged by this provision, Premier Vander Zalm’s govern-
ment forked out $8 million by way of special warrants to get the
eight new economic development regions, also referred to as
duchies or fiefdoms, without going to the legislature for approval.
Now the NDP is wondering where the emergency was. So are alot of
politically uncommitted, albeit aware British Columbians.

Hush up, children

The guardians of democracy and champions of law and order in
Victoria have been naughty and mischievous again. During question
period one day last week, Opposition Leader Mike Harcourt accus-

ed Premier Vander Zalm of having been too busy filming a video at .

his Fantasy Gardens to read the free trade agreement.

The premier was not amused, pointing out that when the first in-
formation about free trade came back from Ottawa a few weeks

ago, the Honorable Mike Harcourt had been busy doing his

‘Christmas shopping in Seattle.

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