Web ose « A6 Terrace Review — Wednesday, February 13, 1991 ast week’s announcement by the Minister of Forests - that the provincial government will spend $1.4 billion over the next five years for silviculture sounded like a breathtakingly generous move for an administration that has been speaking in funereal tones of restraint and recession for the past few weeks. The immediate reaction of | people accustomed to the technique of rolling old money into new packages is to find out exactly how much of the new package is recycled material. In this case the new funds amount to about $400 million, including the government’s recently ratified $100 million commitment to the joint federal-provincial Forest Resource Development Agreement. The rest of it is made up by the federal side of FRDA and the normal silviculture budget for the Ministry of Forests, now paid out of the Sustainable Deve- lopment Fund. That’s about $60 million a year over and above maintenance silviculture and FRDA, not as much as it was intended to sound like but still a substantial amount of money that could perform some very visible deeds, both in-terms of forest work and employment in the woods. Like the FRDA agreement, the second of its kind, this money is intended for something apart from the usual replanting of trees. It’s going to be directed, the ministry says, at grooming the province’s second growth forests. Electioneering points aside (the minister told one audience the fund is "one point four billion reasons to vote Socred"), the timing is good for a project of this nature, and the chances of the money going into something that proves useless are slim. The forest industry is into an economic swamp with no dry ground on the visible - horizon, and intensive silviculture is one of the best ways to pick up the long-term slack in employment. In this region it may keep our heads above water for the next couple of years. One thing it won’t do is-solve the long-term problems the industry has created for itself through inertia and lack of imagination. By hinting that the program will eventually allow the province to increase the annual allowable cut in public - forests by 40 percent, Claiide Richmond revealed himself as . either an irredeemable political cynic or a man who hasn’t yet found the light switch inside his portfolio. The second growth in this province, no matter how much is planted or how carefully it is tended, will never sustain the industry in its _ current form. , But even if the program won’t solve that set of problems, it will still be money well spent. Caring for the forest cannot be — anything but a good investment, no matter what the motivation is, particularly in view of the countless number of stupid ways in which that money could.have been spent. 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Ee Letters to the editor will be considered for publication only when signed. include your tele number. ine ‘editor reserves the fight to condense and edit letters. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those ot the Terrace Review. in compliance with the B.G, Human Rights Act, - To the Editor; This letter is in the defense of the correctional centre. Is the only reason for not having a cor- rectional facility in Thornhill or, as in another case Marshall on the bench in Terrace, that prop- erty values will go down? People should be more in- formed before such a statement is made, I tive on Halliwell and. Munroe, and I for one, have no problem with a correctional facility being built in my neigh- bourhood. (I did not sign the petition circulating in my neigh- - The pipelin To the Editor; °- One aspect of an article in the January 9 Terrace Review, ‘Regional board rejects policy proposal for mining exploration in watersheds”, has prompted me to write this letter. As Presi- dent of Pacific Coast Energy Corporation, the company building the Vancouver Island natural gas pipeline, I am obliged to tell you Ray Brady’s comment on the effect of pipe- line construction in the Coquit- lam Watershed is completely false. Construction of the pipeline has not affected the water in the Coquitlam Watershed. The “screwed up’? water Mr. Brady refers to was caused by two rec- ord rain storms in the Van- ‘couver area in November, which caused turbidity and siltation in the water supply, However, tur- bidity levels in the Coquitlam. Watershed after these storms were actually lower than those in the other two major Vancouver Corrections centre — continued trom page A3 The sand and gravel yard to the east of the property was the sub- ject of an agreement last year between the regional district and North Coast Road Maintenance, requiring the private highways maintenance company to build an bourhood because I didn’t agree with it.) The Corrections Branch in Terrace run a small sawmilling operation that makes them self- sufficient. They do not depend on the government for hand- - outs, they clean up after them- - selves in the bush (which is more than I can say for our. local log- | ging companies) and they don’t house axe murderers, rapists or Uzzi-toting psychos. At present they are overcrowded, both in housing and sawmilling opera- tions. watersheds, Seymour. | During B.C. Utilities Com- mission and MacKay Commis- sion hearings in‘ 1989, Pacific Coast Energy stated that pipe- Capilano and ine construction would - not --— cause turbidity in the Coquitlam. Watershed. And this has been e wasn't at fault, Ray In other areas of this province where correction centres are located, people are not clamour- ing to sell their homes, so ask yourselves why. Property values in the northwest are not low and will not go low because of a cor- rectional facility. If given the nine hectares, I believe the cen- tre will be landscaped so careful- ly, you won't even realize that it is there. I’have seen the work they do, so give them a chance, After all, that’s the civilized -. Christian way. Isn’t it? S, Rosang, Terrace, the case — pipeline construction is not affecting the water supply. The Greater Vancouver Region- al District (GVRD) has con- firmed this fact. |. Harvey S. Permack, President, Pacific Coast Energy, Vancouver. Something else wrong here To the Editor; Yes! Something is wrong here. en’s Resource Centre letter to the editor of February 6, 1991: With reference to Terrace Wom- War and abortion, two of the same The end results, they are insane, We protest and say war kills the innocent too, But we kill a fetus, that’s not a human being, true! As it's only a fetus can’t you see But a war! It will kill both you! And mel Let’s all go out and protest the Middle East war Quick — as‘this afternoon I’m off to my local abortion store. Let’s make war on; no wars, no abortion, no capital punishment — respect all life — be consistent. access road from the logging road to Highway 16. Use of the current road, which meets the highway next to North Coast's asphalt plant by the Copper River, is compli- cated because it traverses part of a reserve area held by the Kitselas band. ‘William Buck, Terrace. The road, proposed to run down an embankment next to a small group of houses on the highway, was never built. Watmough said that non-existent road would be the access for the corrections facility preferred by the regional district.