Little effect expected from lumber pact by Michael Kelly After five years it appears the 1986 Memorandum of Understand- ing between the Canadian and U.S. governments regarding the trade in Canadian softwood lumber. has had its intended effect — raising the cost of the resource to Canadian producers. On Sept. 3 the federal government announced it was unilaterally cancelling the MOU, but forest company officials in- Terrace say that by itself will have . no effect on their operations. "If they scrap the MOU but don’t change the stumpage, it will make no difference at all," said Don Chesley, manager of Skeena Saw- mills. "The big thing is, the MOU shifted the method of calculating stumpage from a market orienta- tion to a revenue orientation. There’s no flexibility to react to ihe marketplace." A series of measures followed the signing of the MOU, an event that took place in the context of the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the U.S. The docu- ment provided for a 15 percent tariff to be imposed on Canadian softwood lumber exported into the U.S. The arrangement began with Ottawa collecting the tax at the border, but revisions to the Forest Act passed by B.C. in 1987 raised stumpage and other costs to the industry and the export tax was removed. . The changes in B.C. forest policy increased operating costs to the industry significantly. Ministry of Forests revenues from-stumpage, royalties and other fees quadrupled over five years to niore than $650 million, and the industry was given responsibility for follow-up work that had previously been paid for by the government from forest revenue, All these factors had the effect of increasing the final price of B.C. forest products, In addition, during the period the MOU was in force the value of the Canadian dollar increased substantially, adding a further disadvantage to the pricing of Canadian lumber in U.S. mar- kets. In the end, the Canadian share of the U.S. forest products market dropped from one third of the market to one quarter. ‘The revision in forest policy prompted by the MOU had a scattergun effect on all producers, even though the action was initi- ated only against those that sold into the U.S. market. Repap, owner of the Skeena Cellulose sawmill in . Terrace, was one of the companies that felt the heat from the MOU sequence of events even though Repap sells more than 90 percent of its lumber on the Pacific Rim and European markets. . Reg Lightfoot, a senior official with Skeena Cellulose in Vancouver, said, "If it was just the MOU, we would have felt penal- Terrace Review —- Wed ized. It attached the cost to every- one, and we would have .to ask, *Why us?’ te "It’s not just the MOU, however, it’s all those incremental charges that came along, like silviculture." Lightfoot added that high Canadian ‘interest rates and the strong Cana-- dian dollar have also been damag- ing. "There’s no question, the _industry is hurting,” he said. The B.C. Ministry of Forests responded to the cancellation of the MOU by issuing a cautiously worded statement supporting the move. The statement indicated that the ministry won’t be giving up its nesday, September | substantial stumpage revenues in the near future and is currently . “ studying the situation. | ~” Skeena MP Jim Fulton said from Ottawa yesterday that he doesn't think the provinces will do any- thing to antagonize the Americans, The U.S. lumber industry move- ment launched in 1985 resulted’ in the MOU was. the. largest single lobby effort ever mounted in Washington, Fulton said, and it would take consider- able time and effort to start any- thing approaching that dimension again. 1.1991 ALS - cancellation that... WEDNESDAY WITH FAE BY FAE MOONEY Gone to the dogs The dog days of summer. Those sultry days we hope will linger on through September and beyond our expectations... but seldom do. Ever wonder how we got the expres- sion "dog days"? It happens that you contemplate such thing when too long out in the mid-day sun... Your mind wonders about such things, along with mad dogs and Englishmen and all that, when you’ve had a bit too much — sun, that is. And we have a day or two of it along the way to autumn. Every doggle has its day A day inthe sun. That’s allittook,. - The day I wrote this... scratch that. Make it — the day I tried to write’ this week’s column, I found it necessary, with my sun-fried brain short-circuiting from the heat, to rely on the wisdom of greater minds and cooler heads (and you'll be glad that I did). oO A dopgie’s day. It’s supposed to a goad day, my dictionary informs me, S¢ is a day in the sun. But I’m not so sure about that one." * * Dogging it Dog days, however, have nothing at all to do with good luck, or:the _« ‘Ken Gibson ; 4804) 635-2909 , *.4946 Greig Ave. _ Terrace B.C. V8G 1N4 “Wind Up A Great Deal On NLYD _ Make your best deal on Canada’s most popular 4-wheel drive ATV, and we'll throw in a rugged Warne 1500lb. winch, absolutely free.*. 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Never curry palsscrigets anal chant drink and ride, Respoci thy environment ind always superviss soem rkers. bn with a FREE’ Warn Winch KEN’S MARINE - ot — ee a _ ‘Handbook records this bit of historical information: influence of the blazing star (visible in the night sky of winter), ~ Celestial Canine because it’s lost in the golden glare _ pack, and in your house, that's you.” _ Rone to the dogs... weather, It’s only that the dog days happen to occur during what should be the hottest part of summer that we have come to associate — the term with heat and sunshine. And sleeping dogs lying by snoozing — j masters out in the mid-day sun and all that. . In reality, dog days are celestial in origin, have nothing to do with - man’s best friend and everything to do with a sun other than our own. ~ Known as the Dog Star, and better known as Sirius, this star rises and sets in our summer sky along with our own star. Burnham's Celestial “The scorching heat of July and August occurs when Sirius rises with the Sun, and was attributed (in ancient times) to the dire bringing forth fever in men and madness in dogs. These ideas prevailed well up into the time of the Renaissance... A more sensible view, however, was taken by Geminus (about 70 BC) when he wrote, ‘It is generally believed that Sirius produces the heat of the Dog Days, but his is an error, for the star merely marks a season of the year when the Sun’s heat is the greatest.” ” . Of course, during the dog days of summer we can’t see Sirius the of our sun. But it’s there, throughout July and August, trotting along beside ol’ Sol, and not adding a bit to the intensity of what we may. wish were along hot summer. | oe - cE Adog’siife =. While on the subject of man’s best friend... ” a Actually, I don’t think we were. Were we — ss Blame it-on Sirius, “the'star whose name men call Orion’s Do Brightest of all is he, yet for an evil sign is he set, and bringeth muc fever upon hapless men...” re -Sunstroke, right? Definitely braindamage. No. It’s the Iliad. A quote from Homer's Iliad. - - re Can’t be Sirius (ooh, can’t believe I really wrote that). Let cooler heads continue — | ree. Backtothedogs | . a Some observations, not of the celestial kind, but of our furry, terrestrial, four-footed pal: . aes Observed George Vest, “The one absolutely unselfish friend that _ man can have in this selfish world, the one that never other friends desert, he remains.” in the dog house? ; Here’s a bit of dog psychology offered by a dog food company’. | cee p From a doggie perspective you are a fellow dog (nice thought), When ° : he came to live with you, a dog’s interpretation of the event was that he joined a dog pack (translate that to family). Your home that he. lives in, he sees as a dog den. Fe, Do “Every dog instinctively wants to sleep close to the leader of the To keep your best-friend happy, treat him like part of the pack ” Cts (translation: member of the family). “But if you want,to understand: : him better, ithelpstothink likeadog.” = © 0. s * pee Said Mark Twain, “If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference be- . tween a dog and aman.” ny : mes Sleeping dogs _ me fone, “The poor dog, in life the firmest friend. The first to:welcome, © + 7, foremost to defend,” Lord Byron penned. And this inscription: “Near ” this spot are deposited the remains of one who possessed beauty without vanity, strength without insolefce, courage without ferocity, and all the virtues of Man, withouthis vices: This praise. which would be unmeaning flattery if inscribed over humun ashes, is but a just tribute to the memory of..adog.” mets oe Here's to faithful Fido. May his doggie duys be long and sunny. ” eS And to you, apologies from this sun-strickén weiter. She's, really : hoe ‘deserts him, the. os one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog... When all = 4 Be { . FA “¢ EA . ale mes ot SL yee