British Columbia

FRED MIRON

o Lyn Kistner, Ladysmith, writes: The
decision by Ladysmith council to endorse
Multiple use of the Carmanah Valley once
gain opens up debate on British Colum-

la’s most important industry.

Owever, it is my opinion that council
and the editorial writers who supported
the decision have taken a narrow, superfi-
“ial view of a most serious problem. _

I work in the forest industry, am a
Union activist and have studied the forest
dustry and its practices for a number of
years,

Crisis is the only word to describe our
forests and the industry itself. The rapid
“depletion of accessible old-growth timber,
adequate forest management and silvi-
Culture practices, inadequate investment

y forest products companies in the manu-
4cture of wood products, and in research
and development, and the massive export
Of raw. logs have deprived our younger
8€neration of much-needed jobs in the
Orest industry.

The T.M. Thompson and Associates

Teport on waste is a stinging condemna-

‘on of MacMillan Bloedel’s logging prac-

lice in the Queen Charlotte Islands Tree
Farm Licence #39. In 1986, MB left 22 per
Cent of its harvest to rot in the forest.

The total amount left was 640,000 cubic
Metres of wood. No stumpage or royalties
Were paid, which deprived the province of

Million in revenue.

If used, this timber could have provided
hundreds of additional jobs and provided
Taw material for many small sawmill
©perations presently starving for logs.

To be fair to MB, they were not alone.

Town Forest, now owned by Fletcher
Challenge of Canada, wasted 11 per cent
Of its harvest. Western Forest Products
Wasted 17 per cent. B.C. Forest Products,

i

Pay logg

Delegates to the convention of the [WA-

Canada were united in their demand that

loggers should be compensated for the loss
of their jobs when forest land is taken out of
production, but the debate over jobs versus
environment continued to be a dominant
issue as union members sat down for their

“second constitutional meeting in Van-

couver.

A resolution backed by the convention
Tuesday noted that forest land “is continu-
ously threatened with being taken out of
production by environmentalists and Indian
land claims” and called on provincial
governments to compensate “those whose
employment is directly affected by the loss
of cutting rights.

“The companies are compensated for
land taken out of production but [WA

_ members are paid nothing,” the resolution

emphasized.

There was no argument over the demand
that workers also be paid for loss of their
livelihood, but many delegates were at odds
with the campaigns by environmentalists
and Native bands for preservation of old
growth forests.

The issue has emerged in several areas in
the -last- three--years,. including Meares
Island, Lyell Island in the Queen Char-
lottes, the Stein Valley in B.C.’s Interior and
the Temegami area in Ontario. But it has
become more acute with the decision by the
federal government to set aside the South
Moresby area of the Queen Charlottes as a
national park, and the payment of compen-
sation to logging companies with cutting
rights in the area.

“We're faced all over the province with
environmentalists trying to shut down log-
ging,” Local 1-85 delegate Dave Haggard

told the convention. “But the companies are’

being paid millions in compensation while
our people lose their jobs.”

Industry is ‘logging B.C. to death’

also now Fletcher Challenge Canada, was
cited for waste.

Although the forest companies have a
long record of mowing the forests for max-
imum profits, and without regard for the
provincial welfare, the latest splurge of
wasteful practices was sanctioned and
encouraged by the Social Credit govern-
ment in order to allow forest companies to
increase their profits. Making money, not
taking care of the forests and providing
new jobs is the name of the game.

Figures released in the Ministry of
Forests Annual Report show the amount
billed for stumpage to the forest industry
was 89 million cubic metres.

Timber billed is not the same as timber
cut. Timber that gets cut by is left lying to
rot on the ground does not show up in the
figure. If the waste is only 10 per cent, the
annual cut would be 100 million cubic
metres.

However, the long run sustained yield
for the province, as best as can be deter-

- mined from forest service figures, is

around 55 million cubic metres. That
means that the current rate of logging in
B.C. is roughly twice what the forest can
sustain over the long run.

One might say we are logging ourselves
to death. =

This also exposes the hypocritical
million-dollar advertisements sponsored
by the forest industry giants.

Iam not an economist, but it isn’t hard
to imagine what is going to happen to
communities such as Ladysmith, Nan-
aimo, Duncan and Lake Cowichan if
alternatives are not put forward imme-

The forest multinationals have also
responded to the increased pressure for
forest preservation areas with pressure of
their own, including saturation television
advertising and such company-backed
campaigns as “Share the Stein” and “Share
the Forest” which have attempted to win
support for logging in the Stein and Car-
manah valleys respectively.

In a commentary in a recent Share the
Stein brochure, IWA-Canada president
Jack Munro said it was “absolute insanity”
not to log the Stein Valley. ““We can’t have

- every valley in this damn province as some

person’s personal refuge to go and feel
good,” he said.

Munro was more restrained in his open-
ing address to the convention, urging people
to make a distinction between genuine
environmental and mere recreational inter-
ests and calling for a balance between
employment and preservation of the envir-
onment.

But he also set the tone for the debate as
he departed from the written text of his
speech to tag environmentalist Dr. David
Suzuki-as “that guy who escaped from a
laboratory experiment at UBC.”

That was echoed on the floor as Local
1-71 delegate Bob Freer told the convention
that the “goofy environmentalists” were
seeking to preserve an additional part of the
Queen Charlotte forests to provide a gate-
way to the newly-established national park.

Fred Miron, representing the Ontario-
based Lumber and Sawmill Workers which
merged last year with the I[WA-Canada,
cited the union’s opposition to proposals to
expand the size of a park in Ontario. He
called environmentalists “single users ...
because they’re not concerned about jobs.”

But blaming environmentalists for the
reduction of forest land and the loss of

ers for forest loss, says IWA

industry jobs is totally misplaced, other
delegates countered.

Local 1-363 president Sy Pederson told
the convention that the real culprits were
the forest companies “‘whose utilization of
the forest resource in this province is crimi-
nal.”

He cited the case of MacMillan-Bloedel
in the Queen Charlottes which left nearly $6
million worth of usable timber on the
ground to rot after logging only 1,826 hec-
tares of land.

“And it was allowed to do it because of a
sympathetic government in Victoria which
is allowing other companies to do the
same,” he charged.

Local 1-357 president Terry Smith
echoed Pederson’s comments, telling dele-
gates that the problem faced by unionists “‘is
the way the industry abuses the forests in
this province.

“Tve seen the Queen Charlottes and
when you see thousands of logs three feet in
diameter and 30 feet long lying on the
ground, you start to understand how it is
that people ask why a company like
MacMillan-Bloedel should be allowed ,to
rape the land like that,”’ he said.

He told unionists that in confronting the
problem, “the industry shouldn’t get off
lightly.

“We've got cut-and-run companies out
of New Zealand, out of New York and
Ontario coming in here and their sole goal is
to load up gunny sacks full of money and
ship them out of this province,” he said.

‘What we need is more than compensa-
tion for loggers — we need a government
that will have the guts to tell the companies:
if you’re going to log in British Columbia,
you’re going to leave the forest in a condi-
tion that will provide jobs for our children
and their children — or you’re not going to

. log at all.”

diately. Logging, saw and pulp mill jobs
will rapidly disappear. Longshoremen are
dependent on forest products for their
jobs.

Our social services, such as schools and
hospitals, are dependent on the taxes of
working people. No forests means
decreasing social services.

I have not dealt with the environmental
question or the old growth rain forest as
an entire eco-system. It is easy to point the
finger at environmentalists or conserva-
tionists as the reason behind lost jobs. The
problems are much more complex.

Privatization of the public sector is an
issue facing the people of B.C. I do not
intend to diminish the importance of keep-
ing schools, roads, hospitals or govern-
ment services in the public sector. But I
submit the biggest giveaway is the privati-
zation of our forests.

The government is increasing the
amount of timber and forest land in the
tree farm licence from 29 per cent to 67 per
cent. It amounts to a transfusion of public
forests from the people of B.C. to corpora-
tions such as MacMillan Bloedel and
Fletcher Challenge Canada. It is estimated
to be a $14 billion giveaway of economic
potential.

I ask the question: why not keep the
forests in the public sector to get secure
access to capital on behalf of the people of
B.C.? Our forests are our future collateral
during economic downturns.

On economic employment strategy,
coast communities lack even elementary
control over their economic destiny, and
most of all they lack contro] over key

resource industries. The livelihood of
hundreds, if not thousands, of coast resi-
dents will remain exclusively under the
control of absentee corporate giants unless
the communities resolve to take bold initi-
atives.

Local and community control of our
forests would permit a massive program
of reforestation and silviculture.

There has been an accumulation of 1.6
million hectares of not-satisfactorily-re-
stocked (NSR) forest land. In spite of the
“Forests Forever” television campaigns,
49,000 hectares are added to the huge area
of land that is NSR every year.

Seventy to 80 per cent of forest produc-
tion is exported as semi-raw softwood
lumber, pulp, and newsprint.

We need to diversify our markets on the
basis of expanding the range of products.
Housing shortages in Canada could be
alleviated by prefabricated housing indus-
tries. We could have furniture manufac-
turing in Ladysmith instead of raw log
barges.

The problem is that this present provin-
cial government and the owners of the
forest companies are tied to policies of
quick profits.

Ihave given only a few examples of how
to create an industry which provides for
the needs of communities and its residents
and to slow down the destruction of our
diminishing forests. What is needed is the
political will to change.

An immediate task would be for council
to call for a Royal Commission into the
forest industry. A commission is long
overdue.

eee

Pacific Tribune, October 3, 1988 e 3