USINESS

e Castlegar Sun

WEDNESDAY, January 25, 1995 2B

Slocan takeover bid raises tenure issue

STEVE WEATHERBE
Sterling News Services

Long, long ago but not’so very far away, when
Mike Harcourt was eagerly and successfully running
for the province's top job, he and his~party made
about 400 morg election promises than necessary to
knock off the oafish Socreds

One was to mount a royal commission to examine
the “management, ownership and tenure of our for-
est lands.”

Now this ghost of campaigns past has been roused
from its tomb by Canfor Corp.'s $640-million offer
for Slocan Forest Products.

Forests Minister Andrew Petter assures me that
the tenure question has not been forgotten but mere-
ly been put off until next term.

He is not about to open this can of worms or
ghosts when he decides in the next few months
whether to approve Canfor's offer to buy. Slocan’s
eight sawmills, one plywood mill and one pulp mill

Environmental groups are giving every indication
they will raise the tenure question prominently dur-
ing the public hearings which Petter has promised to
hold before deciding on the Canfor offer.

Technically, Petter has no jurisdiction over the
sale of the mills — they are private property. But

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what Canfor, really wants is Slocan’'s substantial
€rown tenures (rights to cut trees on public land).

The forests minister can veto a tenure transfer or
attach conditions. This veto is what makes Canfor's
bid so delicate. Petter won't consider the deal until it
is completed but Canfor doesn't want Slocan unless
Petter approves.

Slocan’s tenures, held for renewable 15- to 25-
year terms, provide an annual allowable cut of
4,770,707 cubic metres a year.

This is the third-largest allowable cut in B.C.,
behind those owned by MacMillan Bloedel, with 6.4
million cubic metres, and Canfor with 4.9 million.

There was a time when forest ministers rubber-
stamped these transfers behind closed doors. But too
often they have been followed by the closure of mills.

And though Canfor boss Peter Bentley has promised
not to shut any mills, there are reasogs for concern.

Among them, the fact that B.C.s' pulp and lumber
mills, Canfor’s among them, are operating 25-per-cent
below capacity.“So Canfor could probably shut several
Canfor mills and absorb the fibre without belching. ~

Bentley has acknowledged that his pulp-oriented
company's lust for wood chips makes it a good fit
with Slocan, which has a $33-million chip surplus.

But will Canfor want more than the surplus? Will it
want the chips consumed by Slocan‘s own pulp mil}?

KAREN KERKHOFF
Sun Staff

The axe has dropped for
almost 500 B.C, Hydro workers,
but Hydro officials say employ-
ees in Castlegar won't be in the
unemployment line.

Jim Dixon, Hydro’s area man-
ager for Columbia-Kootenay
transmission and distribution,
said employees at Kootenay
Canal, Seven-mile dam and
Hydro’s Castlegar office won't be
affected by the cuts, and neither
will customers.

“I don't think anyone will
notice a difference in our service
level. We take pride in our level

ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT exec

January 25

Crearly in this likely election year, Petter will be
very careful with how he grants permission. For exam-
ple, when his predecessor, Dan Miller, allowed Inter-
national Forest Products Lid. to buy two sawmills (and
take over their tenure) he attached 22 conditions per-
taining to job protection and forest practice

The Canfor offer has created at least the potential
for an amusing alliance of Interior environmentalists
and Slocan Forest Products against big, bad Canfor.

The New Denver-based Valhalla Society, for
example, has warned that Canfor might shut Slocan
sawmills and ship trees Slocan used for timber
straight to its big chippers on the coast

So here aré Valhalla‘s Colleen McCrory and Grant
Copeland fighting to protect the company they have
‘attacked so often in the past for bad forest practices.
And in the same breath, McCrory and Copeland are
calling for the promised tenure reform.

Concentration of ownership, they say, creates
ever-bigger corporate owners located even farther,
both geographically and spiritually from the green
hills of the Interior.

On the other hand, Slocan President Ike Barber is
a local product, who built-up his company from a
pair of Slocan Valley sawmills purchased in 1978 by
mortgaging his. wife's home

But the environmental movement doesn't want

-Hydro announced the cuts in a

Dixon said the layoffs weren't

tenure. controlled by a bunch of Barber-style
entrepreneurs. They want to take tenure from the major
integrated manufacturing companies and parcel “it out
to thousands of “Mom ‘n Pop” woodlot operations.

Next they would transfer the Forest Ministry's

gt P lity to local boards.

The spectre of the forest industry falling into the
hands of 50 or 60 of these boards, each following the
interminable decision-making process made so infa-
mous by the Commission on Resources and Envi-
ronment, is based i

It is also scaring some people enough to propose
concessions. Patrick Moore, who is a d'gc ctor of the
Forest Alliance, a coalition of resource communities,
forest unions and companies, has come up with his
own tenure-reform package.

Moore, a onetime environmental activist who
now makes his living trying to nudge the forest
industry into the 20th Century before it is over,
would kibosh the regional boards but put half the
tenure into the hands of woodlot operators or munic-
ipal governments. Moore is adamant that the Canfor-
Slocan hearings are the wrong place to debate such
major changes. As the ‘legal dictum goes, hard cases
make bad law. But if the deal gets that far, tenure
reform will be debated at the hearings, in spite of
Moore, the industry or the NDP.

Castlegar spared Hydro knife

customers to minimize future ,

press release saying the measure
was taken so that Hydro could
continue as “an industry leader
in an incfeasingly competitive
Qusiness.”

Management, regular employ-
ees and temporary Workers all
received pink slips, but Dixon
stressed that management took
the deepest cut with 163 white-
collar workers laid off, compared
to 91 blue-collar employees.

a surprise to personnel

“The staff were aware of the
process for the last two or three
months.”

The action will save the utility
over $40 million annually, which
officials pointed out equates to a
rate hike of 1.5 per cent. The
press release said that while no
company likes to lose “loyal and
productive employees in this
way”, its obligation lies with its

revenue requirements,

Hydro isn't just handing out
the slips and turning its back on
the laid-off workers though.
Assistance is being offered by
way of group counselling,
office services for such things
as resume typing, and place-
ment services.

Part of the downsizing also
includes early retirement of some
50-employees

Purchasing power greatest risk

RON DAVIES
Financial planner

In today’s investment environ-
ment, it is easy to forget long-
term financial goals in the face of
so much uncertainty in Canadian
and global stock and boad mar-

The savings vehicles that we
associate with safety in protect-
ing our principal is something
that “guarantees” the return of
our principal at a set period in
time with a set. retum.on our prin-
cipal namely a G.1.C., Canada
Savings Bond, etc.

goods and services will not con-
tinue to rise in the future, then
there is no risk associated with
this type of savings vehicle

Let's consider the price of a
postage stamp. In 1973 the cost
of mailing a letter in Canada was
eight cents, today that cost is 43

Guaman
portrait
personal
favorite

You still have, a few weeks to
see the two exhibits at the
National Exhibition Centre. In
the large gallery are the black and
white portraits of the people of
souther Ecuador by Judy
Blankenship with text panels,

Jothing, jewelery, i
these Canari people and their cul-
tural traditions.

yce

These formal portraits took a
long time to be completed, due to
the resistance of these quiet peo-
ple. Finally, a deal was made,
whereby as long as the pictures
were formal the people would
have them done, in return for
being given a picture for them to
hang in their homes.

Which of these pictures do you
like best? Mine is Antonia Gua-
man and his grandparents. The
grandparents have a gentle smile
- Antonia looks confident with
his camera strung around his
shoulder. Grandfather wears his
shirt tom in the sleeves.

Tejidos de Guatemala is show-
ing in the smaller gallery, which
displays typical clothing worm by
the people of Guatemala, includ-
ing a traditional backstrap loom
and foot looms. This is curated
by Jacqueline Mealing, who has
lived in this country for three
years and now goes there several
times a year.

EE —
A record-breaking crowd tu

National Exhibition Centre. Exhibits continue until Feb. 19.

There were 125 people at the
opening of these two shows at the
National Exhibition Centre,
which probably is a record-break-
ing attendance. Everyone enjoyed
listening to the Ecuadorian people
playing their marimba music. The
show at the NEC finishes Feb. 19.

Slide show

There will be a slide presenta-
tion and talk at the NEC given by
Jana Malinek on Libya - Cinderel-
la of the North African Shore

This travel night presentation
will give a fascinating account of

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Sunday: 3 pm - 9:45 pm

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kets. You may be wondering if
you should change your invest-
ment strategy in view of the
potential problems in Quebec, the
Canadian debt situation or the
falling Canadian dollar.

Recently, much of the concem
surrounds the potential loss of
capital. In fact, our greatest finan-
cial fear is the loss of our capital
This is definitely a risk that we are
faced with, however, the greatest
financial risk that we face is the
joss of purchasing power.

Unfortunately, the nsk associ-
ated with these types of savings,
the loss of -purchasing power,
does not frighten us and it
should. The real rate of return,
that is your return less inflation
arid taxes; historically has pro-
vided a negative two per cent
return. Meaning your money can
purchase two per cent less of the
goods and services than it could
the previous year, each and
every year.

If you believe that the price of

cents plus GST for a total of 46
cents. That is the risk that we are
faced with

If you believe that we will see
future increases in the cost of
mailing a letter, you should be
concemed with the risk of loss of
purchasing power.

If you have the long-term goal
of protecting against the loss of
purchasing power in mind, then
the short-term risks in the finan-
cial market of loss of principal
must take a back seat to longer

Located Playmor Junction
Come in & visit ust!

120 Kootenay Castiega
(604) 365-2711 » [fax] 365-2716
511 Front Street, Nelson
(604) 354-1700 * fax) 354-1666

Ave.,

term considerations.

The key to protecting against
loss of purchasing power is to
position a portion of your savings
in equity-type investments. An
example. of this would be owner-
ship of manycompaniés through
the use of an equity-type of
mutual fund.

r The key to protecting against
loss of principal is to focus on a
long-term savings horizon-a
period of 10 or more years—as

well as a well-di

fied portfolio of as many differ-

L.

ent types of investments as
possible. Not “putting all your
eggs in one basket”.

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Hand”, a voluntary association
helping to organize a co-opera-
tive and collect some of the
weaving and sell it here. All the
money is returned to the people
When you enter the small
room where the Guatemala show
starts, on the opposite wall is a

the two years Malinek spent
working and travelling in Libya.
There will be description of the
four régions of Libya and you
will see in the slide presentation
1000-year-old tombs, and cave
paintings, made by the original
inhabitants from Fezzan, the
G Date is Jan. 27 at 7

woven red shirt of simple design.
By the pattern, it shows the vil-
lage where it is made.

By the side are photographs of
the children wearing this shirt
pattern—this is the village with
whom Jacqueline has_been
working.

On the right side as you enter
is a lovely small oil picture called
Market Women of Solala. Sadly,
its creator was assassinated. It
could be due to his painting of
these Indian people or helping
them in some way.

Sunday hours

MITCHELL SUPPLY LTD.
490 - 13 Avenue
10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

p.m. Admission is $2.

Young artists

In Trail at the Community Cen-
tre is a show sponsored by West
Kootenay Power called Visions in
the Making. It is B.C.’s premiere
exhibition for. young artists coor-
dinated by Emily Carr Institute of
Art and Design. The 79 young -
artists, ages four to 18 and from
all comers of B.C., had their art
selected from 1,300 submissions.
Paintings, drawings, photos and
prints are included in the exhibi-

are as follow:

PHARMASAVE
1128 - 3rd Street
11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

PLAZA I.D.A. PHARMACY
646 18th St., Castleaird Plaza
12-4 p.m.

PANAGOPOULOS PIZZA PLACE
2305 Columbia Avenue
3 p.m. - Midnight

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tion, which is on until Feb. 2. Call
364-1181 for further information.

Drawing classes

Anyone interested in drawing
classes? Keith Shelefontiuk is
giving a course for beginners or
advanced at Selkirk College Feb.
8 - April 26. Contact Selkirk Col-
lege at 365-1261.

Print on display

Richard Widdifield has just fin-
ished his first of four art prints
of Robson. It is callg¢d Autumn
tic cliff
formation of the Lion’s Head. This
print is on display at the Castlegar
Library. There is a limited edition
of 250 prints, which is being spon-
sored by Robson Elementary
School. His second print-will be a
winter scene. Widdifield is known
locally for his mural work at the

ic Centre.

rumen

ed out for the opening of the two new exhibits at the

SUN STAFF PHOTO / Jeff Gabert

Oil show

At the Nelson Museum, Miro
Gabriel is exhibiting oil paintings
bring to mind European expres-
sionists such as Munch. There is
a play of good and evil portray-
ing a certain drama with colors of
black and ochre. Gabriel moved
from Slovakia in 1990.

Shields to read

At the Castlegar Library on
Friday at 7:30 p.m. there will be
a reading by the famous author
Garol Shields. Her latest book,
a@ prize-winner,
Diaries, has been much in
demand at the library.

It will be a hard choice for res-
idents of the area to choose
between this reading of Carol
Shields or the slide presentation
on Libya at the NEC. Both are on
the same evening, so the decision
will have to be yours!

The Stone

HAMMERS, PLIERS

Art school wants
those old tools

Submitted

“There's no tool like an old
tool,” the old saying goes.

And “that’s exactly what
Kootenay School of the Arts is
looking for—old tools. Two new
classes have been added to the
school’s program roster this
term and both need an equip-
ment boost.

Students taking Introduction to
Blacksmithing and a three-
dimensional design class would
greatly benefit from the donation
of any of the following tools.

On the hand tool side, KSA

needs: hammers (all kinds),
vises, clamps, squares, files, riv-
eting tools, tin snips, planes,
screw drivers, wire and bolt cut-
ters and woodworking tools,

On the power tool side, the
school could use electric drills, a
band saw, drill press, table saw,
disk and belt sander, or a floor
model combination.

“We've already seen the very
generous donation of an old
blacksmith’s vise, a-hammer and
a set of pliers,” says 3-D design
instructor Lou Lynn, “but ‘given
the number of students we have
working at any one time, we
could use more equipment.”

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COMMUNITY DATELINE —————
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FINANCIAL PLANNING
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Are you baving an entertaining event?

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SUZ
The Castidgar Sun

mis