Saturday, January 16, 1993 @

Corky has his hands full wit

Corky Evans is up to his keesters in
meetings these days, and he wishes it
was timber.

Evans is chairman of the B.C. Leg-
islature’s all-party standing committee
on forestry, which is holding meetings
around the province to find out what's
ailing the industry's remanufacturing
sector.

Remanufacturing is that part of the
forest industry which takes raw lum-
ber, re-mills it or refines it into products
such as panels, shelving, window
frames and similar value-added items.

Many industry officials believe that
the remanufacturing sector is the only
part of the forest industry that can be
expected to crete new jobs in the future,
but there is a problem — lack of wood.

The other problem is that few repre-
sentatives of the remanufacturing in-
dustry are actually coming out to the
meetings.

Evans says he has reason to believe
that the operators of remanufacturing
plants, mostly small outfits, are being
intimidated by the big companies. And
if that is so, he says, it’s nothing short
of blackmail.

But some firms have been repre-
sented at the public hearings of the
committee. Among them was Roy Sum-
merhayes, president of the Vancouver
Island Association of Wood Processors.

Summerhayes says there an esti-
mated 100 small wood remanufactur-
ing firms on Vancouver Island alone,
employing about 1,000 people.

Report
from

Victoria

Hubert BEYER

The future of the remanufacturing
sector, he told the committee in Victo-
ria last week, was threatened by the
steadily dwindling timber supply. Van-
couver Island’s allowable annual cut
has been reduced once and further cuts

are expected.

Such reductions in the allowable cut
don't, of course, affect only the small re-
manufacturing firms, but cut deeply in-
to the operations of the big companies.

In the last three years alone, the
number of International Woodworkers
of America (IWA) jobs lost on Vancou-
ver Island as a result of mill closures in
Victoria, Lake Cowichan, Sooke,
Nanaimo, Port Alberni and Tahsis is
estimated at 3,000.

The two sectors are competing for
the same diminishing wood supply,
which gives credence to Evans’ suspi-
cion that the little guys are being pres-
sured by the big firms into staying

away from the committee hearings.

The picture elsewhere in British Co-
lumbia is equally bleak: too little lum-
ber to go around. In Williams Lake, the
local Share Group, a coalition of stake-
holders in the forest industry, has
called on the chamber of commerce to
tell its members that what happens to
the forest industry happens to every-
body.

h review panel

up a lot of the slack in the overall in-
dustry, if it is allowed to expand.

“I don’t believe one two-by-four
should leave this province if there is
one person in British Columbia who
can process it further,” Summerhayes
said.

Gary Brookes, a self-employed log-
ger from Sooke, told the committee he
has been making a living from leftovers

mw Saturday, January 16, 1993

“We are discussing the wealth of the province, and I would
think that anyone with a stake in the industry would beat a
path to the committee’s door.”

— Nelson-Creston MLA Corky Evans

Share groups have a wide-ranging
membership, comprising forest work-
ers, housewives, business people and
community leaders.

And they want to send a message to
the business community in general
that they have to join the fight for ade-
quate lumber supplies, unless they
want to see their towns go down the
tube.

Summerhayes told the committee
the most urgent thing the remanufac-
turing industry needs is some commit-
ment from government that it is want-
ed.

And the proper signal would be to
make sure that the industry has a se-
cure supply of wood.

The small firms, he said, could pick

and small timber licences for years. He
said he could expand his operation, but
there’s no timber available.

Evans told me he was disappointed
that only so few operators showed up at
the hearings. He had expected people
to line up to be heard.

“We are discussing the wealth of the
province, and I would think that any-
one with a stake in the industry would
beat a path to the committee’s door.”

Welcome to politics, Corky.

The long and the short of it is that
too many people are depending for
their survival on the same, ever-dimin-
ishing resource, and they'll do anything
to come out the winner.

What’s more, you can't really blame
them.

An open letter to Kim
Campbell, Minister of De-
fense

We are very happy for you

want any part of sending

dear good lady, that youdon’t very good decision by you.

Save our Canadian sol-
Canadian soldiers to Iraq. diers. Train them on a differ-
You are a wise lady. Thatisa ent course, instead of hating

would turn to plain love.
start loving other countries, joy, even on earth.
i So dear good lay, stand for

and killing others, so they The reward will be great wish you good health and joy

To for this. It will be everlasting

the truth.

You will be progressing
more and more. We need peo-
ple like you in the world. We

in your heart. Keep up the
good we work , we love you.
Mike W. Davidoff,

Policies undermines
business community

An open letter to Premier Mike Harcourt,
It is now apparent that your government's duplicitous deal-

ings with key B.C. business leaders rega:

rding Bill 84 have pro-

foundly alienated the business community and undermined in-

vestor confidence in your administration. .
Your government's partisan pandering to union kingpins on
matters such as “fair” wage policy, public sector wage settle-

ments and Bill 84 have poisoned our provincial investment cli-

mate. Indeed, the hostile business-government relationship
that now exists is all to reminiscent of the situation that pre-
vailed under the Barrett government — and it is getting worse

by the day.

The reckless indifference your government has displayed to
the legitimate concerns of B.C. business leaders has made it im-

possible for them to support you at the World Economic Forum

in Davos, Switzerland.

It is remarkable that you should expect these people to trav-

el at their own expense to Davos to help you sell British Co-
lumbia to international investors when you won't even meet

with groups like the Vancouver Board of Trade.
In short, your government's policies are reducing British Co-
lumbia’s attractiveness as a place to invest. That has been the
that B.C. business leaders quietly and consistently de-

li over the pes year.
Rather than

ooting the messenger a:
I you to put aside your ideological

s you have done so far,
agenda and honestly

work towards fostering a more favorable investment climate

that will create jobs and protect pay chi
; ack

¥

es.
t Weisgerber, Leader,

Social Credit Party

ALL WINTER STOCK
LADIES WEAR - FABRIC & LINENS DEPTS.

AroundTOWN

Our person
for
Our People
Corinne Jackson
365-7266

COPING
WITH
CHANGE

Selkirk College’s
Continuing
Education
program is
offering a course
on menopause.
‘A Life Transition’
will provide
information on
menopause from
several vantage
points — both
physical and
social. Practical
suggestions for
coping with the
experience will
also be explored.
The class will be
held Jan. 26 from
7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
and will cost $13.

A TIME TO
REMEMBER

The
mammography
van will be
visiting Castlegar
Jan. 18 to Jan.
23. Women over
40-years-old are
encouraged to
phone the cancer
information line
at 1-800-663-
4242 during
business hours
to make an
appointment.

KICK UP

YOUR HEELS

The Castlegar
Seniors will be
holding a pot
luck dinner
complete with
fine
entertainment
Jan. 23 at 5 p.m.
Bring your
dancing shoes
with you — a
dance is planned
and will follow
the dinner at 8

p.m.

@ Russian visitor intends to
preserve lost Doukhobor
tradition in native country

Corinne Jackson
NEWS REPORTER

ost visitors to an area
come with the intention
of taking in the sights,

smells and sounds.

Dr, Alexander Vaschenko is no
different... except that his list of
things to do is much greater.

He is a man with a mission.

_ “[ was invited to teach a couple
of courses,” the Russian visitor
says modestly.

Sure, he’s teaching Beginners
Russian and Russian Literature in
translation at the invitation of .
Selkirk College. But there is also a
much bigger reason why he’s here.

“It is a kind of personal
commitment,” he explains.

Over the next three months,
Vaschenko hopes to do a lot of
networking and information
gathering in the name of
preserving Doukhobor culture and
bringing it back to its origins — to
Russia.

“I’m here to... contribute any
way I can to this.

“Making these contacts and
making them work is not easy, but

| it’s important to do,” he says.

Vaschenko feels that unless work
begins now, to preserve and record
the language, culture and social
values of the Doukhobor people it
will be lost from Russia forever.

aschenko points out the

older generation is taking

their way of life with them
when they die. Younger
generations, he says, are becoming
“mass culturalized” and adopting
the North American way of life.

But Vaschenko realizes that
recording and preserving a culture
is no easy task.

“We are looking into having a
joint project among the Doukhobor
population, (Selkirk) College
possibly and us,” he says.

The “us” he refers to is Russia’s
Gorky Institute of World
Literature.

Vaschenko would like to see the
college get involved in student and
teacher exchanges to help compile
and preserve proverbs, songs, and

| folklore. Ideally, the institute would

News photo by Corinne Jackson

Dr. Alexander Vaschenko is excited about preserving a piece of Russia's dying
heritage while in Castlegar. The Russian teacher wants to bring much of

Castlegar’s proud Doukhobor tradition back to his native country.

be a centre for learning about
Doukhobor and Russian cultures.
“Many people could profit from
this,” he says, explaining why he
chose Castlegar and the
surrounding area to do his work.

(14 e are attentive here
because of the
Russian-speaking

population here.

“This is a really (important)
place where the folk knowledge is
being retained,” he marvels.

Vaschenko has only been in
Castlegar since Monday. He has
given two Russian language classes
and he is already excited by what
he has heard.

“I (am learning) a lot because in
the pronunciation (of words by)
students I heard things that are
gone.” Gone, at least, in Russia.

“We need a linguist to be part of
the (project) to preserve it on tape.

“It’s a relic,” he says with
excitement.

According to Vaschenko, tough
economic times in Russia are

making his work difficult but it
won’t get in his way.

“I see and understand how
important these things are,” he
says.

The preservation of culture has
come under attack before, but it
must not continue, he says.

The Russian Revolution of 1917
resulted in the destruction of
anything that stood in the way of
progress, including arts and
culture.

{4 ow, 70 years later
where we have
Perestroika and post-
Perestroika, we are told it’s
important that we don’t make the
same mistake we made in 1917.”

“Perestroika has brought
problems for the people (of Russia)
but also some good things,” he says.

At least one good thing in
Vaschenko’s books is the possibility
of such a visit to Castlegar to carry
out his personal commitment... to
study and possibly preserve the
Doukhobor heritage. a :

m.” fo

“We must bring that into actio