‘This week:

Utilization
«. for what?

by. Tod Strachan -

Utilization. It means to make use
of.something; to tum it into

. something of value. Some would

argue we are utilizing our forest
resource but others would ask
those. people, "To what degree?"
Some would invite you to the local
sawmill and show you dozens of
busy workers feeding logs into one
end while dozens more stack
lumber spewing out the other end.

This is commerce, they would
explain. We're putting people to
work tuming a raw product into a
saleable item and at the same time
turning a profit for the owner of
the mill. This is commerce... the
lubricant that keeps the gears of
the local economy from grinding
io a halt. It’s the lifeblood of the
community.

Others, though, would give you a

_ different picture of the world, They

would go further than the mill and
show you the wood left in the
bush. Then, they would take you
to the opposite end of the spectrum
and describe to you the percentage
of our resource that the lumber
spewing out of that mill actually
represents. And, finally, they
would compare the value of that
lumber to other possibilities that
exist.

So who’s right? Who do we
listen to?

In the true sense of the word
“utilization” they’re both right. The
gentleman at the mill has a valid
point. After all, looking at the
industry in a purely economic
sense, a tree left in the bush isn’t
worth a nickel. Even if we were to
do nothing more than turn our
trees into firewood we would be at
least creating jobs. We would be
"utilizing" our resource; tuming it
into a saleable product. And it’s

VICTORIA — On April 5, the
Social Credit government of
Premier Bill Vander Zaim will
unveil its plans for the future,
in its fourth Throne Speech
since being elected in 1986.

And all indications are that
we will be ‘‘treated’’ to a
legislative session which will be
the most raucous — dare | say
vicious? — of this government
term.

The Opposition New
Democrats believe that they
have all the ammunition to
score significant political points
in the House,

But they could be in for a
surprise of two when Cabinet
ministers go on the offensive...
and I am being reliably assured

quite obvious that’ the iumber we

produce is worth a lot more than
firewood.

Perhaps, then, it’s that other
question that needs to be exa-

mined... to what degree are we uti-

lizing our forests? Can we do
better?

Last week we discussed the
"commodity trap"... producing
what some customers want simply
because it’s the casiest, cheapest
thing to do. The forest industry
had a rude awakening in the early
1980's, though, when even these
low-cost products became too ex-
pensive to sell. And this raised the
question of utilization. Could we
have used the resource to better
advantage and avoided that
crunch? Could we have made more
money and created more jobs than
we did?

The industry had a clue there
was something wrong about 15
yeats béfore this little setback. It
was becoming apparent that our
forests weren’t the endless
resource we had thought they
were... we were beginning to run
out of what were considered to be
marketable trees.

The industry and the government
came up with a solution, though.
They decided it would be a great
idea if we began cutting different
species and smaller trees. This

would'give the industry: more trecs ...-

and answer their woes in the com-
modity market. They would be
able to cut more pieces of wood
per minute and that would keep
them competitive in the commod-
ity game.

This brought about another probl-
em, though. Smaller trees meant
more waste. We dropped from the
traditional 50 percent lumber re-

covery we had enjoyed with the |

larger logs io about 35 percent
lumber recovery with the smaller
logs. Smaller trees meant more

Vg ghee a cae a ae agen gg Tee OE Tee a gene eet a at daa ga te

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—

slabs or chips, or more of both.

The industry and the government
came up with a solution, though.
They decided it would be a great
idea if we built pulp mills in the
interior of the province. The saw-
mills wouldn’t be able to get what
those slabs and the chips were
worth — but at least they would
become products that couldn’t be
described as waste.

There was a hitch, however. In’

order to cover the cost of shipping
their pulp to tidewater, the pulp
mills need a break in the price of
chips. This wasn’t a big problem,
the sawmills could sell their chips
and slabs to the pulp mills at a
third of their true value. In reality,
though, the sawmills were doing
nothing more than subsidizing the
pulp industry in order to increase
production and cut even more
pieces of lumber per minute.
Techonology, in the form of
computers, came to the rescue. It

meant the loss of a few jobs, but '
the sawmills became much moré

efficient and remained competitive
in the international commodity

"market. At the same time the pulp

mills created some new jobs, and
everything looked pretty good. All
the angles were covered and forest
industry production in the province
had been diversified to a degree. If
there was a temporary problem
with lumber sales, we still had the
pulp.
One small item was overlooked,

however. The pulp market was just

The view from
Victoria —

by John Plfer

that they do intend to be offen-
sive.

Although the NDP have Bill
Reid’s stupid, rather than
venal, indiscretions to conjure
with, and Carol Gran’s unwise
Women’s Day faux pas to jeer
at, among others, don’t expect
the Socreds just to lie back and
take it.

With an election on the
horizon, and in the knowledge
that the best defence often is a
good offense, watch for
Government House Leader
Claude Richmond to fire up
the troops for some verbal war-
fare, and to engage in some
himself.

And with a political veteran
such as John Reynolds, who is

as fiercely partisan as they
come, just itching to get into
fiery debate after three years of
holding his tongue in the role
of Mr. Speaker, it could get
ugly out there.

And that’s what some long-
serving MLAs say they want —

a return to the “‘honesty’’ of
nasty partisan attacks, instead
of the kinder, gentler
Legislature of cooperation
we’ve seen in the past three
years.

It will bear watching, and
certainly cries out for televising
of proceedings in the House —
a promise made nearly four
years ago by Mr. Vander Zalm,
that we’re still waiting to see
fulfilled.

as much of a commodity market as
the lumber market was. We hadn’t,
in reality, gained a thing, other
than the means to get rid of a lot
of waste that would otherwise have
been burned. Like lumber is a raw
product in construction, pulp is a
raw product in paper production.

and pulp and making the end prod-
uct — houses, paper and picture
frames ~ who were truly "“utiliz-
ing” our resource. They were the
ones that were taking our resource
in its most basic form and turning
into the final product. Once they
were done, there was no one, other.
than the retailer perhaps, who
could make another dime out of
those trees.

And guess who they were selling
their products to? That's right...
you and me. The guys who
wrestled a whole log through the
mill in order to earn enough
money to buy their lunch bags.

Not the lunch...‘just the. bag. This.

last statement may be a bit of an
exaggeration, but it’s point is valid
and clear.

But this is only half of the story
on the utilization of our forests.
While our fallers were being sent
out to cut smaller and smaller trees
so that our sawmills could crank
out more and more pieces of lum-
ber per minute, no one was talking
about what was being left in the
bush.

Mountainsides around the region
became festooned with felled logs

less than eight inches in diameter.
The tops of trees — less than six

inches in diameter — were cut off |
and left. Any felled log that was ~
less than 100 percent sound was |
left. Trees that were damaged

because they fell down an embank-

_ ment after they were cut were left -
It was the guys taking our lumber

and forgotten.

This isn’t to say it’s wrong to
leave some of each tree behind...
nature has been turning fallen trees
into nutrients for the young for
centuries. It’s just that we were
leaving far too much. If you recall
our discussion on horizontal and
vertical integration a few weeks
ago you can appreciate the value
of what was being left behind.

The wood that was left in the
bush, tops and broken bits of trees,
could have been worth as much as

$1,300 per thousand board feet if

we would have used it in the best
possible way. In fact, the whole

tree could be worth that much...

and that’s a lot different than the

$350 per thousand board feet we .

get for our basic cuts of lumber.
Truc, if we were to follow that
course, manufacturing costs in the
forest industry would doubic... but
so would the profits.

Next week, we'll take a look at
the material we’ve covered to date.
Following that we'll discuss other
areas of the forest industry. To
begin with, we'll have a look at
the "green illusion". Is that forest
you see on the other side of the
valley really there?

a=

Earlier this month, in the
spirit of the aforementioned
cooperation, Speaker-designate
Stephen Rogers invited NDP
House Leader Mark Rose to
join him and Ian Horne, clerk
of the House, on a trip to Ot-
tawa and Toronto.

The object of the exercise
was to learn how the federal
and Ontario politicians and
bureaucrats deal with space
problems in the Victorian

_ palaces that are our centers of

government.

“Some of our MLAs have
broom closets for offices, while
Cabinet ministers have bowling
alleys,’”? quipped the feisty Rose
upon return from the frozen —
East.

And with four new NDP

. MLAs, but no extra space,

since the ’86 election thanks to
an unbeaten string of byelec-
tion victories, the Opposition
rightly believes it is entitled to
better accommodation.

I doubt that they will get it
unless they become govern-
ment, despite Mr. Rogers’ ef-
forts on their behalf. There are
some Cabinet ministers with

aD
spacious digs whose egos will
not allow them to part with
such perks.

If Rose and others think the
space is a problem now, wait
until after the next election,
when there will be 75 MLAs to
deal with, thanks to electoral
reform.::

I understand that the desks
and chairs currently used in the
House will be trimmed to fit in
six new spaces, and that
assorted renovations and
relocation proposals are being
studied.

If the members of the Press
Gallery get on the

 government’s back too much,

one wonders if we’ll.end up in
tents on the legislative lawns
rather than the dank third-floor
dungeon we currently occupy?

A quick word on the end

(for now) of the political career
of Terry Huberts, the Saanich
MLA who was causing his seat-
mate, Finance Minister Mel
Couvelier, all sorts of head-

_aches as the election ap- .

proaches,
Continued on page AS

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