British Columbia

Gabriola Island
residents tackle
Weldwood over
logging proposal

By JOE LYCHAK
The people of Gabriola Island may not have realized it
but on Jan. 18, they came face to face with British Colum-
bia’s forest crisis. :
Trustees representing Gabriola Island held a special
information meeting to enable Island residents to question
representatives from Weldwood Canada Ltd. on its
recently-announced plans to begin logging on the island in
February, 1989.

The meeting inclu-
ded two people from
the Islands Trust as
well as three officials
from Weldwood, which
is a subsidiary of Cham-
pion International, one
of four corporate groups
controlling the provin-
ce’s forest industry.

Concerns of residents
were well-founded con-
sidering recent revela-
tions of the industry’s

LYCHAK forestry practices in
other parts of the province. Weldwood owns some 3,500
acres on Gabriola Island which constitutes 25 per cent of
the total land mass.

According to company representatives, the bulk of the
land was part of the old CPR land grant which means that
Weldwood does not pay royalties or stumpage to the B.C.
government for the timber taken off. Nor is the company
subject to the regulations of the Forest Act because the
land is privately held.

According to trustee Susan Yates, the meeting was the
best attended of its kind in Gabriola Island’s history.
Residents questioned Weldwood on a number of issues,
including logging methods, buffer zones, windbreaks, nest-
ing areas for eagles and blue herons, wildlife areas for deer
and, most important, watersheds.

Water is a particular concern for residents because it is a
problem in the summer months. They fear that with the
timber gone, the water shortage will become more acute.

Weldwood assured residents that the company intended
to log selectively and to minimize ecological damage. But
company officials rejected the suggestion that it allow a
citizens’ committee to oversee the work.

They also noted that if Weldwood ran into the kind of
resistance that MacMillan Bloedel encountered on Saltsp-
ring Island, the company could be forced to sell the land to
developers which would result in a complete loss of con-
trol. ;
In response to a question about how much timber
Weldwood exported as raw logs last year, officials gave
assurances that none of the Gabriola timber would be
exported. But they added that they could do whatever they
wanted with timber taken from private land.

In fact, the Weldwood representative stated no less than
four times during the meeting that the company could do
what it wanted on private land.

The comment was the most revealing statement made in
the meeting and highlights one the weaknesses of the
Forest Act — the lack of legislation governing private
timber holdings.

In countries such as Sweden — cited by British Colum-
bia’s forest industry as Canada’s main competitor for
exports to Europe — private timber lands are covered by
legislation to ensure that the resource is protected. Swedish
legislation also covers properties which adjoin forest land
and provides a model that could be useful to B.C.

There are rumours on the island that some people
intend to spike trees in order to stop the logging. But the
spiking won’t stop Weldwood and it won’t win any favour
with the public at large. It is also dangerous to loggers and

mill workers who have to cut the logs.

The most appropriate way for Gabriola residents to
deal with the problem would be to join in the demand fora
Royal Commission of inquiry into the forest industry in
B.C. An inquiry would give the people of the province an
avenue through which to fight for a new Forest Act which
would be responsive to the needs of British Columbians.

A call from the Islands Trust for the provincial govern-
ment to set up a royal commission could initiate a new
beginning.

Joe Lychak is a logger from Nanaimo.

Uproar over forest licences
demonstrates need for probe

The Social Credit government’s
forest policy is in serious trouble. It
has been challenged on two major
issues: the new Tree Farm Licence
(TFL) policy; and its stepped-up
exports of raw logs.

Last week, Forests Minister Dave
Parker announced that the hearing on
Canadian Pacific Forest Industries
application for an expanded TFL in
the Gold River area, originally set for
Feb. 2, would be postponed indefi-
nitely. That followed the postpone-
ment of the Nov. 23, 1988 hearing into
Fletcher-Challenge’s application fora
huge TFL in the Mackenzie area that
would have covered six million hec-
tares.

In both cases, the postponement
was the result of unexpected protests
and planned interventions by a
number of public organizations op-
posed to the granting of the licences.
In the case of the Vancouver Island
hearing, a large turnout from munici-
pal councils, union locals, environ-
mental groups and Native organiza-
tions was expected. More recently, the
protest. was joined by the Truck
Loggers Association which announ-
ced that it would appear at the hearing
to oppose, not only the licence appli-
cation, but also the government’s
entire program to expand TFLS in
the province.

J

exports urgent.

proposals and declared its intention to
fight them. It also called for a full
royal commission of inquiry into the
industry.

The truck loggers are small forest

Maurice Rush

Announcing the second postpone-
ment, Parker said he would hold eight
“public information sessions” to
explain the new TFL program. “I
want to hear the views of British
Columbians,” he said. It was too bad
he didn’t try to get the views of the
public before the government rushed
through Bill 28, the amendment to the
Forest Act passed at the last session of
the legislature.

The legislation is an act to privatize
the forests of B.C., committing the
government to expand the TFL pro-
gram to cover 67 per cent of the
allowable forest cut, up from the cur-
rent limit of 29 per cent. The new
policy would turn over an estimated
$14 billion worth of Crown timber to
a small number of multinational con-
glomerates which now dominate the
province’s forest industry.

Bill 28 was a major change in forest
policy but it was pushed through the
legislature with a minimum of public-
ity and was practically ignored by the
media. Now the chickens are coming
home to roost. The public has become
aware of the real meaning of the legis-
lation and has registered its opposi-
tion to this massive alienation of
public forests.

A major factor last week in shaking
the government’s determination to
press ahead with the implementation
of Bill 28 was the strong stand taken
by the Truck Loggers’ Association at
its convention in Vancouver. The
group strongly condemned the TFL

THE PROVINCE

companies which are being pushed to
the wall by the big conglomerates.
Many of them would be put out of
business by the expanded TFL pro-
gram.

Many IWA-Canada locals have
also been winning the support of
municipalities on Vancouver Island
to oppose the licences. The recent
convention of the B.C. Federation of
Labour likewise condemned the TFL
program and called for a full public
inquiry into the forest industry.

The coming together of labour,
municipal, Native and environmental
groups as. well as the small logging
contractors (who are traditionally
Socred supporters) has shaken the
government and forced the minister
of forests to beat a retreat.

However, the eight public meetings
proposed by Parker are no answer to
the problem. They are intended to win
public support for an insupportable
program.

What is needed instead are two
measures:

_ @ The repeal of Bill 28 and the
abandonment of plans to turn over
the bulk of forest lands to a few major
companies;

® The appointment of a full royal
commission of inquiry into all aspects
of B.C. forest policy.

The log export controversy has also
reached new heights in recent weeks.
Originally, the forest companies and
the government justified log exports

LoG LOADING AT SURREY-FRASER DOCKS ... moratorium on log

when the industry was experiencing
economic difficulties a few years ago.
The argument then was that the com-
panies needed the extra income to
survive.

But the lie to that argument was
given last year when profits jumped to
the highest level ever — and so did
log exports.

The government added to the con-
troversy last week when forests minis-
ter Parker overrode the recommenda-
tion of the Timber Export Advisory
Committee and allowed a company
to export logs even when there was a
B.C. buyer for the logs.

Under current regulations, logs can
only be exported if there is no buyer in
B.C. and then only after the timber
has been. advertised for sale in the
province. In this case, the forests min-
ister ignored the advisory committee
and granted the export permit.

Coming at a time when log exports
have surpassed 3.5 million cubic
metres, Parker’s decision brought the
whole issue of log exports to the fore-
front and ignited strong feelings
among woodworkers and their union
representatives.

Lashing out at the government’s
export policy, !WA-Canada president
Jack Munro charged: “It (the log
export policy) is a direct export of
jobs. We lost two weeks at Youbou, a
big mill on Cowichan, one of the larg-
est left on the coast, because of a log
shortage. Across the lake, there were
booms of logs for export. We lost four
weeks at Eburne, one of the biggest
mills in Vancouver, because of a lack
of logs. And at the same time, the
papers are full of ads for booms of
logs to be exported to Japan.”

The volume of wood now being
exported could provide some 4,500
jobs in converting plants if they were
processed in B.C. Instead, the jobs are
exported along with the prime logs
while thousands of woodworkers are
unemployed or face layoffs.

There should be an immediate
moratorium imposed on log exports
until a royal commission on forestry
has been set up to examine the whole
industry in B.C.

Pacific Tribune, January 30, 1989 « 3