Forest Minister's Stein stand costly to public and industry
BY KEN LAY
"Waterland himself is calling the shots on this one", said a Forest Service official who did not want his name revealed. Privately he admitted that the amount of government subsidy needed to provide road access into the rugged Stein valley so that it can be logged is unprecedented. "The economics just don't make sense."
Is Waterland, the B.C. Minister of Forests and MLA for the riding which includes the Stein, trying to keep the logging interests in his own riding happy at any cost?
STEIN SACRED TO LYTTON NATIVES
---Vow To Prevent Logging
In September the Lytton Natives of the Nl'akapmx Nation formally joined with the Lillooet Tribal Council to oppose logging of the Stein. One of the Lytton reserves is located at junction of the Fraser and Stein Rivers.
In a press release, Chief Ruby Dunstan said the main issue is that the proposed development violates their aboriginal title which has never been relinquished through treaty. Her people want the Stein preserved because it is a place with special spiritual and sacred significance for them. They also recognize that increased access would have a harmful impact on their "Westside" (of the Fraser) way of life.
Although not opposed to all logging, they specific-ally oppose any Stein development, including tourism, until their Nation's general land claim is settled. When Chief Dunstan was asked whether or not the Indians would log the Stein if they got the valley as part of their land claim settlement, she responded, "Would you bulldoze down a perfectly good mansion worth mil-lions of dollars that had been in your family for generations?" No way.
The Band is hosting a Thanksgiving celebration at the mouth of the Stein. It is open to the general public to further gather support for their resolve to prevent the planned destruction of their sacred Stein Valley.
The cost may be high indeed. Just to get the wood out will take several million tax dollars, money, which environmentalists argue could be spent more wisely elsewhere creating jobs like intensively planting thealready logged areas or providing incentives to up-grade mills to produce value-added products from wood now left rotting in the clearcuts.
The hidden cost is loss of credibility. How can the B.C. government continue to argue that they are not subsidizing the logging industry and thereby competing unfairly in U.S. markets?
The Stein clearly proves the American case.
Already the radical American environmental press, Earth First, is spreading news about the Stein. It is only a matter of time before the environmentally aware American public which threatened to boycott travel to B.C. and thus helped bring about a halt to the B.C. wolf kill, joins with the U.S. loggers who say that the Canadians are liquidating their forests, using goverment subsidies to log faster and sell cheaper.
Evidence already shows that the B.C. government has been running its Forest Service at a deficit for several years to give the industry a break. In the United States, the stumpage (the tree cutting tax) is nearly twice B.C.'s. There, it not only pays for replanting trees on a sustained yield basis, it also pays to establishwilderness areas that are protected by law in the states. Unfair.
Don't think that the Stein situation will escape the U.S. media's attention. When the conflict reaches confrontation, as it surely will the way things are going now, it's the sort of ammunition the U.S. Congress will use to impose the dreaded tariff on Canadian lumber. Such an American tax will cost tens of thousands of Canadian jobs. Logging the Stein could ultimately cost Canadians billions of dollars.
Clear-cut near Lizzie Creek, over the ridge from Stein Lake
The Stein issue is accelerating to confrontation. Waterland is pushing it that way. His recent statement, "I'm not concerned with any Native claim on the Stein. The B.C. government, regardless of what party has been in power has never recognized land title claims", is motivating Natives—one- third of his constituents— to get on the voters list. His close-minded refusal to meet with locals who want to find a way to save the Stein and use the logging subsidy more wisely may be a political mistake.
With an election just around the corner, the Stein could be Waterland's and the Social Credit's Waterloo.
