The Prince George
Citizen
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3,1991
51 CENTS
(Plus GST)
Low tonight: 5 High tomorrow: 19
Violence ganging up 10
$45 million for the kids 11
Croatia under fire 14
Alberta blanks Seaboard 15
Phone:562-2441 Classified: 562-6666 Circulation: 562-3301
15-PER-CENT DUTY ON LUMBER TO U.S. TO DISAPPEAR
Canada to scrap softwood fee
by KEN BERNSOHN Citizen Staff
Canada has served notice to the United States that it is cancelling the deal which led to timber-cutting fees in this area being raised from an average of $1.78 per cubic metre harvested to $12.
Deputy Prime Minister Don
Mazankowski announced in Ottawa this morning that the Memorandum of Understanding on Softwood Lumber would be cancelled Oct. 4.
The memorandum, usually called the MOU, added a 15-per-cent duty on Canadian lumber shipped south, effective January 1, 1987. In October 1987 it was replaced with higher timber-cutting fees in British Columbia, with most other provinces also introducing replacement measures.
In B.C. the change added an extra $320 milion to export charges of $300 million.
Canada imposed the controversial tax in a deal which prevented the United States from slapping import duties on Canadian lumber.
The cancellation of the agreement will actually make lumber from B.C. less competitive, George Killy, president of Vanderhoof Pulp and Paper, said today in Prince George.
“Alberta never put in replacement measures, so their mills will save money immediately on the cancellation of the agreement, but nothing changes in B.C.,” Killy said.
“This does allow us to have more flexibility in how we charge for timber,” Prince George South MLA Bruce Strachan said here.
“Previous to this we were locked into a very inflexible system which did not allow for, among other things, changes in the value of the American dollar against the
Canadian dollar and (adjusting) the charges to remanufacturers whose end products aren’t dimension lumber.”
Mike Apsey, president of the Council of Forest Industries, reacted favorably to the announcement.
“Needless to say, we’re extremely pleased the government has taken this action we’ve been advocating for some time,” he said from Vancouver.
“The MOU has served its purpose and with dramatically increased stumpage (timber-cutting) fees, increased Financial responsibilities for silviculture (by companies) and changes in the value of the dollar, it’s not needed.
“We have no promises (of lower fees from the provincial government), but now we can talk British Columbians to British Columbians.”
Federal Forest Minister Frank Oberle is aware of the announcement, although he is
in Germany, and supports the changes, his press secretary, Rod Maidcs, said today from Ottawa.
“I welcome the announcement, but I’m sorry it took so long and so many jobs were lost (due to the MOU),” said Prince George-Bulkley Valley MP Brian Gardiner from Ottawa.
“The timing is very convenient for the provincial government, seeing as an election is imminent,” added the federal NDP forestry critic.
An announcement would be made this afternoon telling the American government’s reaction, Roger Bolton, assistant U.S. trade representative, said from Washington, D.C.
The U.S. lumber lobby has long complained that provincial governments unfairly subsidize Canadian lumber producers by setting artificially low fees —
called stumpage — for cutting trees on Crown land.
Under the 1986 softwood deal, the United States agreed to halt any trade action as long as the tax made Canadian lumber more expensive for U.S. consumers.
Mazankowski said circumstances have chahged since 1986 and he is confident Canada could win any trade action initiated by the Americans.
“There is no subsidy of softwood lumber production in Canada,” he said at a news conference.
“When I came out of school in the ’60s, lumber was a controversial issue with the U.S.,” Apsey said.
“It was a controversial issue in the ’70s, and in the ’80s. It will continue to be one in the ’90s I’m sure.”
INDEX
| MILL CLOSURE INDEFINITE"
Fletcher Challenge Canada’s three lumber mills in Mackenzie will be shut down indefinitely Saturday, throwing 500 people out of work, the company announced today.
“The decision results from poor reiums caused by depressed markets, and high costs in the Mackenzie Timber Supply Area,” Tom Milner, vice-president in charge of the firm’s Northern Interior Wood products division, said in a press release.
The decision will be re-evaluated when there are changes in lumber prices or timber-harvesting fees, said Tom Williams, manager for public affairs in the company’s Vancouver office.
According to Milner, the demand for lumber has dropped severely since mid-July, causing lumber prices to drop as well.
ROTATING STRIKES RESUME
Talks ‘useless,’ post office says
by GORD McINTOSH The Canadian Press
Canada Post said today it is useless to continue bargaining with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, which resumed rotating strikes across the country this morning after a weekend truce.
“I have a better chance of growing a full head of hair by noon than we have in reaching an agreement with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers,” declared the balding Harold Dunstan, Canada Post vice-president of human resources.
“After last night’s session, I defy any businessman or negotiator to find an agreement,” he said. “The bargaining table can accomplish no more.”
Relations at the bargaining table soured Monday night when the union balked at a revised offer from the Crown corporation.
Both sides are now watching the office of Labor Minister Marcel Danis.
Danis hinted Friday that Ottawa would intervene unless there was substantial progress over the long weekend. The federal government ended the last postal strike — in 1987 — with legislation sending CUPW members back to work after a 16-day walkout.
The minister’s office said Danis will likely have a statement late today.
Dunstan told a news conference that negotiations are off until the union changes its position. He refused to say whether Canada Post intends to lock out CUPW’s 45,000 members.
Rotating strikes resumed in at least 16 cities today.
Earlier, union president Jean-Claude Parrot urged Danis not to order the workers back, saying that is precisely what Canada Post wants.
He said Canada Post has been wasting time in the 26 months since the last contract expired while waiting for Ottawa to step in.
Dunstan, who characterized CUPW as a “dinosaur union,” said Canada Post won’t ask Danis to step in.
Although Toronto postal workers were back on the job today, union
Normal here, for now
Postal service in Prince George has returned to normal, for the time being, after picketing Thursday and Friday.
Prince George members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers took down their picket line four hours earlier than scheduled Friday night, to make sure all federal government cheques could be delivered Saturday.
“We took down the line at 8 p.m. and delivered thousands of cheques on Saturday,” Doug Tedford, secretary treasurer of the union local here, said this morning.
members were out in several majo centres, including • Vancouver Montreal and Quebec City.
And, as both sides continued th public relations war in Ottawa, Ca nada Post went back to court toda; in Toronto seeking a permanent in junction to limit the number o pickets at three sorting stations.
On Friday, the company won ; temporary injunction that expire< today banning all pickets at th< three plants, where mail is sorter for distribution across the country.
Justice Robert Montgomery sai< the ban was tKe only way to pre vent picket-line violence.
Late Sunday, Canada Post mad a revised offer that was as thick a several phone books. But Parro said today there was very littli new in it.
Bulletin
LA QUINTA, Calif. (AP) — Di rector Frank Capra, the Sicilia immigrant whose classic movie reflected the hope, vigor and indi vidualism of the American spirii died today at his home in Califoi nia. He was 94.
Capra died in his sleep at 9:3i a.m. at his La Quinta home, sail his son Tom. *
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
Children in the Beaverly area board their first bus of the school year as about 19,500 students in School District 57 returned to classes. Laidlaw Transit, the new bus contractor for School District 57, Back td school ran 52 buses in the greater Prince George area today, another six in the McBride-Valemount region
and an additional three around Mackenzie. Routes will be rearranged slightly and fine-tuned over the next several days as the company tries to make pickup times in some areas earlier than they were today, said Laidlaw operations manager Gary Gale.
OTTAWA (CP) — The yearlong recession is history, Finance Minister Don Mazankowki declared today after learning that Statistics Canada’s broadest gauge of what’s ahead for the economy is pointing to a strong recovery.
The composite leading indicator, which includes 10 key economic statistics, jumped by 0.9 per cent in June following in-
creases of 0.7 per cent in May and 0.2 per cent in April.
That followed figures released Friday indicating that the economy was already growing strongly this spring.
“Aren’t those figures nice,” said Mazankowski.
“I guess that means it’s the end of the recession and recovery is here,** the normally cautious finance minister said.
The indicator tracks furniture
and appliance sales, the stock market, bousing sales and other statistics which tend to react quickest to changes in the overall health of the economy.
“The growth of the leading indicator continued to accelerate in June,” said the federal agency.
On Friday, Statistics Canada figures showed that the economy grew by a strong annual rate of 4.9 per cent in second quarter —
after a year-long slump.
Despite the powerful rebound, some economists were concerned that the recovery showed signs of tapering off in June.
But the leading indicator for June rose to 139.0 from 137.7 in May. The figures are based on a level of 100 in 1981.
It also showed strength in more components in June, particularly in manufacturing.
Recession over, Mazankowski says
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3 DIE IN ALBERTA
School bus crashes
CARSELAND, Alta. (CP) — A school bus ferrying students back to school after the summer holidays was rammed from behind today by a tanker truck in a road-construction zone. Three people, including the bus driver, were killed.
The bus was stopped before a bridge when the tanker, carrying diesel fuel, smashed into it. The two vehicles went over an embankment and burst into flames.
Merrill Demone, a witness on the bridge, said he saw a young boy and girl escape from the wreckage. The boy’s head appeared to have been be burned.
Passers-by took the two children to hospital.
The collision occurred about 8 a.m. in an area four kilometres south of Carseland that has been under road construction since May. Carseland is 50 kilometres southeast of Calgary.
There were five people on the bus, including the driver.
Police had earlier said as many as 22 children might have been aboard the school bus.
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