PRINCE GEORGE
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SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 2002
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FACTBOX
Tariffs on Canadian lumber
■ U.S. Commerce Department announces the final countervailing duty rate is 19.34%. The average dumping rate is 9.67%.
■ Individual company dumping rates are Abitibi (14.6%), Canfor (5.96%), Slocan (7.55%), Tembec (12.04%), West Fraser (2.26%), and Weyerhaeuser (9.67%).
■ Cash payments for the duties will have to be paid starting in May if the U.S.-based International Trade Commission decides to uphold its preliminary ruling the U.S. industry was injured.
■ The commission will also decide whether duties are retroactive to the
summer, which could cost the Canadian industry $1.7 billion.
■ Under a recent U.S. law change, those duties would flow back to the U.S. industry coalition companies that launched the trade complaint.
■ The U.S. Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports allege Canadian companies benefit from cheap timber as a result of provincial timber pricing systems, and the Canadian producers dumped lumber below cost into the U.S.
■ Canada had been trying to broker a deal that set a temporary export tax on Canadian lumber while provinces implemented agreed-to policy reforms to make their timber pricing system more market sensitive.
TODAY
PRINCE GEORGE 4 KOOTENAY 1 (Cougars lead best-of-seven first-round playoff series 1-0) Game 2 — 6 p.m tonight., 550 CKPG
Ann Landers..................28
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164 i
Softwood duty slammed
Gov’t, industry lash out as U.S. imposes 29% tariff
Lumber ruling divides Americans
Duties levied on Canadian lumber imports Friday were sharply criticized by an American lumber consumer group, but senior U.S. officials defended the move.
The American Consumers for Affordable Homes (ACAH) said the duties totalling 29% on Canadian lumber will make houses more expensive and harm the U.S. economy by acting as a hidden tax on new homes.
“By following the wishes of a handful of U.S. forestry companies, the U.S. Commerce Department ’s ruling today stands as a slap in the face to millions of American consumers and workers who rely on ready access to to Canadian softwood lumber products for housing, furniture, cabinetry and other uses,” said ACAH spokesperson Susan Petniunas. The consumer group — which includes builders, lumber suppliers and companies like Home Depot — estimates the duties will add $1,500 to the price of new home.
But a senior U.S. official said Canadian logging must be made more market sensitive. Sen. Max Baucus labelled Canadian timber pricing systems as “Soviet-style.”
“The message to our good friends in Canada should be clear — the United States will not tolerate Canadian lumber protectionism,” said Baucus. “Free trade must be a two-way street to be viable and the United States is tired of being taken advantage of by Canada’s forestry policy.” ,
P.G. woman added to health board
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
B.C. government and industry officials immediately denounced punishing U.S. duties slapped on softwood lumber Friday and vowed to find new ways to get leverage in the trade batde.
The U.S. Commerce Department announced a final level of countervailing and anti-dumping duties totalling 29%, which could have a devastating impact on the B.C. industry.
Talks meant to salvage a deal collapsed late Thursday with Canadian negotiators charging the U.S. had bargained in bad faith.
“1 think it’s time Canada stood up and stopped allowing the Americans to slap us in the face, pretending we’re good friends when in fact it’s a very asymmetrical relationship,” B.C. Lumber Trade Council co-chair David Emerson told reporters.
Emerson, president and CEO of Canfor Corp., said it’s time for “massive linkage” on the trade file but would not mention specific items. Commodities like oil and gas, hydro and water have been mentioned in the past.
Canfor, the largest forest employer in the Prince George region, has no plans to shut down mills temporarily in the next six to eight weeks, added Emerson. Beyond that, production decisions will depend on markets, he said. “We’re going to keep running, we’re going to get stronger, we’re going to get tougher,” he added.
B.C. Forests Minister Mike de Jong said the province had put solid, extensive forest policy reforms on the table, which were met by unreasonable de-
George Airport Authority and Exploration Place, has been appointed to the 11-member Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA).
The PHSA delivers province-wide programming like cancer and diabetes treatment, transplants and cardiac care.
Kordyban will be the main representative from the North. Other members are from Vancouver, Victoria, Merritt, White Rock and Trail.
Boards of directors have also been appointed for four other health authorities in the province.
SATURDAY REPORT
Homegrown medicine made at UNBC, CNC
The reality of getting the UNBC Northern Medical Program — in only 21 months — to train rural doctors is a huge step for northern B.C., but it’s only part of the story of how a community and region rallied to the challenge of saving a health-care system that was quickly slipping away.
In today’s Saturday Report on page 15, Citizen reporter Bernice Trick explains how the next generation of northern health professionals is being trained in Prince George.
Marlca
Cartwright was working In the planer mill at Lakeland Mills In Prince George on Friday, as the U.S. Commerce Department announced a final level of countervailing and antidumping duties totalling 29%, which could have a devastating Impact on the B.C. forest Industry.
•
Citizen photo by Brent Braaten
mands by the U.S.
While Canada will be pressing its legal case, de Jong also called for finding other levers to pressure the U.S. Asked if Canada should link the trade dispute to other items like oil and gas, he didn’t rule out the possibility. “I think we’ll have to figure out how to channel (Canada’s) justified anger in the days ahead,” said de Jong.
Forest-dependent communities in the North are already bracing for the impact of the punishing duties.
Mackenzie mayor Tom Briggs said he
supports taking legal action rather than signing a bad deal, but noted the legal route will take time, perhaps even two to three years. “That’s an awful long time to try to hold a community together with that type of sword (steep duties) hanging over its head.”
Mackenzie, a community of 5,200, north of Prince George, is reliant almost solely on lumber and pulp mills.
However, forest industry consultant Charles Widman sees a small silver lining in the U.S. ruling Friday since the duties actually were slightly lower than
the preliminary 32% ruling. As well, companies like Canfor, West Fraser and Slocan saw the anti-dumping portion of their duty drop. “This ruling I think has to be regarded as somewhat better than we anticipated,” said forest industry consultant Charles Widman, referring to U.S. coalition demands for duties of more than 50%.
Widman believes Canada should still look for a negotiated settlement between now and May.
— For more on the softwood lumber dispute, see page 5
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff
Two of the new members who will sit on the Northern Health Authority board of directors are from Prince George.
Roseline Ferre, B.C. project manager for WoodWORKS joins Harry Gairns, who was earlier appointed board chair.
Other members appointed Friday by Sindi Hawkins, B.C. Health Planning Minister, are: Ronald Bardett of Terrace, marketing manager for a First Nations radio station; Dale Bumstead of Dawson Creek, a vice-president with ICBC; Jeff Burghardt of Prince Rupert, general manager and CEO of Prince Rupert Grain; Lorne Dalke, a businessman from Chetwynd; Sheelagh Garson, a retired teacher and nurse from Fort St. John; Dudley Leather of Quesnel, a retired owner and manager of a private nursing home in the United Kingdom; and Bonnie McCreary of Smithers, co-owner of the Hudson Bay Lodge.
Gairns, who had input into the three-year-term appointments, said he’s hoping to bring the board together during the first week in April, probably in Prince George.
He said it’s important members meet as quickly as possible because “everything relates to the fiscal year which begins April 1.”
He said among the first items on the agenda will be to look at a report involving 18 design teams
which have been charged with identifying areas where money can be saved or revenues raised.
The teams are addressing an expected $22.5-million shortfall in the $375-million budget for the authority, which stretches from Quesnel to the Yukon border and from the Queen Charlotte Islands to the Alberta border.
The teams are to scrutinize every component like sick time, overtime, purchasing and making changes in areas like food services, laundry, lab and pharmacy.
Gairns said the new board equally represents each of the NHA’s three health delivery areas with three from the Northern Interior (Prince George and Quesnel), three from the northwest (Smithers, Terrace and Prince Rupert) and three from the northeast (Chetwynd, Dawson Creek and Fort St. John).
Ferre said she looks forward to being part of the board.
“Health is such a critical factor in our economy. There are difficult decisions to be made and members will need to be open to new ideas and new models,” she said.
“I look forward to helping achieve a system that works for the North.”
Meanwhile, Valerie Kordyban of Prince George, director with the Fraser Basin Council, Prince
FERRE
COUGARS
SWANSON
Sports editor Jim Swanson Is In
Cranbrook with the Cougars. For his report on the team’s victory over the Kootenay Ice, see page 10.
Cornered
by Baldwin
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