For immediate release ö Monday, January 29, 2001
TIMBERGATE!
WCWC demands BC Attorney General appoint an Independent Prosecutor to investigate stumpage abuse and the extent of the involvement in possible fraudulent activities by the Ministry of Forests, Interfor and other big forest companies.
"It appears that the Ministry of Forests under the direction of past Forest Ministers has set up a stumpage appraisal system that clearly violates the Ministry of Forests Actâs Section 4 requirements to collect stumpage revenues in a fair and equitable manner. This opened up the door for companies to misrepresent the quality of wood they have been logging to get lower stumpage rates and cheat the public purse out of millions and millions of tax dollars," said an angry Paul George, Executive Director of Western Canada Wilderness Committee.
George is referring to the research report "Stumpage Sellout ö How forest companies abuse of the stumpage system is costing B.C. taxpayers millions," released today by the Sierra Legal Defense Fund and available at the web site
www.sierralegal.org.Stressing that the Minister of Forests is obligated under the BC Forest Act to collect stumpage revenues in a fair and equitable manner, George says that this report shows "nothing could be farther away from this legal mandate than the current system. It enables big companies to scale their own wood and then pawn off a sample of poor quality wood instead of the valuable millennial-old cedars and Douglas firs they are actually going in to get in these cutblocks. Meanwhile small business loggers are forced to pay much more for public wood."
According to George, this is an untenable situation. "We can not wait until the outcome of the next election to start sorting this out. Every day tens of thousands of tax dollars are being siphoned out of government revenues. If the NDP government when faced with these facts doesnât immediately take action we could very easily see the current Softwood Lumber Trade agreement negotiations with the Americans go sour. The result of that would be a hefty U.S. countervailing duty that takes even more money out of Canadian government bank accounts, only this time it will be deposited in the U.S. government treasury.
The only way to get to the bottom of this Timbergate asserts WCWC is for the government to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and recommend laying charges where necessary. WCWC will be sending a letter to BC Attorney General, Graeme Bowbrick asking for this decisive action.
For more information contact Paul George at 604-683-8220