Six Months

I have made no posts in 6 months because all news simply continues to be totally depressing shit, and I'm sick of being bummed out.
Continued declines in US housing starts, slipping lumber prices and now the totally immoral, deceitful use of 'environmental' laws by US pulp producers to get billions of dollars in subsidies by polluting more.
Then yesterday, the latest blotch on the horizon for this area.
Nak’azdli Band filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court to stop the development of Terrane’s Mount Milligan Mine.
The Band has ordered Terrane to remove all equipment from the property.
link @ opinon250

This is just too goddam much.

Newfounland Drops The Hammer

Closing a mill and planning to get rich selling your timber rights? Don't try it in Newfoundland & Labrador where their government has decided thou shalt not profit from creating ghost towns.
Abitibi-Bowater is about to have it's timber rights and hydro-electric rights expropriated for not living up to it's commitments closing down a pulp mill!
--- link to story
Take note BC, with an election coming next year will this be added to a Party platform?

FSJ Curse Continues

One of the biggest drawbacks to living in the Fort is The Drag... an ongoing curse where nothing, absolutely nothing ever gets resolved, completed, or comes to a conclusion in a timely manner. It just goes on and on and on, forever.
Witness Mt. Milligan. The mine that's been about to open for the whole 20 years I've lived here.
Now, the latest is that they're a victim of economic times, They can't borrow money, just like any other business.
Victims of the financial crisis that doesn't exist here according to our Glorious Leader in Ottawa. You know, the one with the Mr. Dreesup fuzzy sweater who says we're in great shape and spends more time playing partisan games and fomenting Parliamentary crises...
The latest 'opening date' is now moved into Spring 2010. Any Investment here will be on hold for another year.

http://tinyurl.com/6sa8z9

MIlligan moves ahead, but?

Terrane Metals continues to award contracts on its proposed $916-million Mount Milligan gold and copper mine in the Northern Interior.
The company has awarded two additional contracts, with ABB Switzerland Ltd. to supply motors for the mills and to Siemen AG for transformers for mine-site substations. Earlier this year, Terrane awarded a contract to Metso Minerals Industries to supply various mills, including the primary crusher mill.
... Responding to questions about the sinking price of copper and poor commodity markets:
"Should we get to the third quarter of 2009 and these markets are still terrible, and you can't (borrow) a nickel from a bank, obviously we are not going to be starting construction even if we get permits in place," said Pease.
However, the company has options if the financial picture doesn't improve, including delaying of the first-year's construction which might be able to be caught up at a later date

-- full article PG Citizen

Wardrop Engineering Inc. has been awarded the detailed engineering design and procurement contract for the Mt. Milligan Copper-Gold Project.

--- from opinion250

Jack Layton's Right!

Scrap the Softwood Deal!

Everyone knows it was an awful deal, after all. It raised the penalty for exporting lumber to the U.S. from a combined rate of 10.8 per cent to 15 per cent; it also hit Canada with the so-called "surge mechanism," designed to discourage investment in Canadian sawmills. Then it added insult to injury by handing half a billion dollars of our money to the U.S. Coalition on Fair Lumber Imports -- the ultra-protectionists who launched the lumber fight -- and another half billion to George Bush for use as a political slush fund.

The deal increased raw log exports by saddling lumber exporters with a border tax but allowing raw logs to enter the U.S. duty-free. It encouraged investment in the U.S. rather than in Canada since our sawmills pay the 15 per cent tax while U.S. mills pay nothing. And both Ottawa and B.C. handed Canadian companies cash with no strings attached, most of which they immediately invested in the U.S. No wonder that in the now-melting-down North American building products market, Canadian producers are even more severely hammered than their U.S. competitors.

On top of all this, Canada was inches from winning the dispute before World Trade Organization tribunals, NAFTA panels and U.S. courts. Days after the deal was signed in 2006 the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled the U.S. tariffs and duties illegal, ordering the U.S. government to give back all of Canada's money. But since Stephen Harper had already caved in and signed a sweetheart deal with George Bush, that decision was moot. We threw away a sure win in the courts for sure defeat under the Harper-Bush deal.

-- from thetyee.ca

We Hate To Say We Told Ya So Dept.:

Pact lets dollars pour into mergers, not jobs and communities.

--look back to what was written in 2006. It's ALL BECOME TRUE.

And in the Things Aren't Getting Better Dept. we point out, well, in spite of smiles and back-claps and pancake breakfasts - now we may end up without one gas station in the Municipal District!

Chevron/Town Pantry bales out of the Fort - link to the Citizen
and we know Mr. G is barely hanging on. The 3 people who will actually put 'Last Gasp' pseudo-fuel in a $35,000+ vehicle can't keep that going.
AND Mackenzie - link to the Citizen
And the town is right pissed. Unfortunately not too many citizens here think a modernized station would make a go of it.
Do you think a Triple-0 burger takeout inside the Town Pantry would make money? Of course not - you probably won't! But your kids would buy every burger it cranked out just because it's close to the school, and just because it's a franchise name. Believe it or not, people would keep a McDs going in this town just because it isn't the same old unpredictable piece of shit burger.
It's time for someone to put their money where their mouth is and support a modern franchise outlet here, whether it be 7-11, A&W or a mini-White Spot. Otherwise, just like Chevron Head Office, YOU don't think your own town deserves anything but second-rate knock-offs.
A real carwash would be good too, rather than standing in 6" of muck off a logging truck and feeding tokens in for hours while you get wetter than your car.

Canadians Want Aid For Forest Industry

The results of a new poll by Nanos Research for the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) come as major forest companies in Canada face an immediate debt crisis.
The poll showed that 60% of Canadians agreed or somewhat agreed that federal and provincial governments should financially support the forest industry to prevent more companies from failing. Just 32.1% disagreed or somewhat disagreed with government support for forestry companies.

--Unfortunately, the Softwood Lumber Agreement specifically bans any aid that would benefit our own industry. A major reason why much of the money returned after the signing of the Agreement was used by Canadian mills to purchase US operations instead of modernizing and upgrading their own.

Here's the link to the full article

Close to home, the Mackenzie Pulp mill will not be firing up before next spring.
Mackenzie mill will be winterized, no plans to restart before spring

West Fraser Buys Stuart Lake Lumber

But no guarantee it will open; may just want the timber rights.

West Fraser has reached an agreement to buy Stuart Lake Lumber, which owns a sawmill in Fort St. James shut down since the spring of 2007.
The mill will not be operating any time soon because of market conditions, West Fraser would consider all of its options.
Forest industry analyst Paul Quinn said West Fraser is making a smart move by buying the mill for its long-term timber rights

.
---link

Meanwhile, Conifex is trying to start up the old Pope&Talbot mill but is experiencing some delays
---link

Least Imaginative Use Makes Headlines

Alberta to make newsprint from beetle-damaged wood
Of all the thousands of uses for the beetle-killed wood, the least imaginative (grind it up and make pulp) is tearing up the 'news' these days. Perhaps it's because it's Alberta the most Tory-friendly, least imaginative Province in the country.
Perhaps it's because Alberta has decided to actually do something, rather than simply flap their gums endlessly and gobble up grant after grant, study after study, proposal after proposal while the wood rots in the forest and becomes a serious fire hazard.
Time for British Columbia to put it's money where it's mouth is!
----CBC source

Good, Bad, and Ugly News

The Good: The Receiver has found a buyer for Mackenzie Pulp, a numbered Alberta company which already owns several pulp mills. They'll be in court today asking it to approve the sale, and to uphold Canfor's obligation to supply chips.
---from opinion250

The Bad (which is really another good): Terrane has reached an agreement with GoldCorp that allows them to acquire a direct joint interest in the Mt. Milligan project. While this is good in that it secures financial backing for the near $1 billion project, we're naming it 'the bad' only because of a tainted history of Mt Milligan flipping shares and selling from one company to the other over the last 20 years and never actually producing!
---this from PG Citizen

The Ugly: and this one has the potential to become REALLY UGLY! Russia seems to have come to it's senses and will be imposing a significant increase in taxes on raw log exports. This is going to drive the importing countries like China, Finland, etc to seek supply elsewhere and BC companies are already trying to make exporting logs look like a good thing.
The reasoning is going to be the "at least" pitch, at least the loggers can keep working. You know the pitch that's been used over and over to make the people of the 2nd largest resource country on the planet who should be among the world's best off, accept as little as possible.
We'll also get the pitch that only the evil commie-fascist Russians control raw log exports therefore we as good free enterprisers have no right at all to tell companies they can't tear down the forest and ship it out without creating a single job for Canadians. (Gee the same pitch the Yanks have fed us for two decades!)
--read all about it in the Vancouver Sun, with the spin how it could "Boost BC Forestry"

FINALLY !!!!

Emerging forestry firm Conifex Inc. won court approval Monday to buy and operate the Fort St. James sawmill.
Conifex, a new firm being set up by three former forestry and investment banking executives, said it will pay $12.8 million for the Fort St. James mill in northern British Columbia. The deal also include $3 million in liabilities, including reforestation and environmental expenses.
Conifex - which is being run by former Slocan CEO Ken Shields, Former Primex Forest Products CEO George Malpass and former Raymond James executive Dave Roberts - said it plans to have the mill fully operating by next month.
--- 680 news

Finally some great news to report. A Canadian company, and the Court even gave a big 'f.o,a.d.' to Indonesia's PT Pinto Deli.
WOOT!

Beetles take Bite of Alberta, Ont Mill wants Smarter Workers

Climate change deniers, who seem to abound in Alberta, get to feel the bite of the Northern Pine Beetle as yet another mild winter is causing an explosion there of infestation.

Spring survey results released this week are showing that high numbers of the beetles survived the winter across much of southwest Alberta and in several pockets in west-central Alberta.
Two years ago, beetles had attacked 19,000 trees in Alberta. A year ago, the figure was three million. Besides threatening an estimated $23 billion worth of timber in Alberta forests, officials worry about potential changes to the watershed, leading to more run-off and flooding.

Ontario Mill now sets Grade 12 standard:

When Red Rock Mill Inc. reopens the mill in Red Rock, Ontario in 2009 (to manufacture the Multiply line), all employees will need to have their grade 12 for safety reasons.

According to Red Rock's labour adjustment centre, roughly 40% of workers who were laid off from mill closures in Nipigon and Red Rock over the last few years didn't finish high school.

Mill manager Mike Shusterman said Thursday that some workers who would normally be hired in a flash because of their solid work history, won't qualify if they don‘t have Grade 12.

It ain't that hard!
Mills here should strictly enforce GR 12 or better on all new hires, there's no way some kid who won't finish school should be taking a job away from one who will. No way a Supervisor should consider hiring someone without the ambition to even graduate!

--both stories in foresttalk.com

Booked your Moving Van yet? More wait and see...

The courst have granted P&T another extension on the sale of their 3 BC mills. They now have until July 7th to gather offers.
Hurry up and wait some more, which should be adopted as a motto for our town where absolutely nothing, ever, comes to a speedy conclusion.
The delays have been so numerous the P&T sale has become un-newsworthy in the major papers, like "Dog Bites Man".
Read about it here in the PG Citizen, or here on opinion250, or here on foresttalk.com financial news if you really want to get further depressed.
Worker options have been reduced to move or hope that this area of BC will be granted the status of some isolated Newfoundland outport and grant EI extensions. The second option carries with it the warning that even with an EI extension, that too will be run out by the time the mill becomes operational again.

Milligan Files Enviro Assessment

Terrane Metals has filed their project assessment, the next step is to file to initiate the statuatory review period.
Read the article, they even mention some workers will be living in the Fort.
----opinion250.com

P&T's Halsey Oregon mill was flogged for $24 million yesterday to Ableco Finance LLC.
---Portland Journal

Mackenzie takes another kick in the 'nads as CANFOR announces an indefenite shutdown of it's mill there, throwing another 200 people out of work
---opinion250.com

Canada Paid for US Timber 'Slush Fund'

From the 2006 Softwood Lumber Deal:

"much of the $1 billion the Canadian negotiators relinquished to the United States has been used to reward the American lumber industry and other friends of President George Bush's administration. Concerns the money would be used for a slush fund may well have been fulfilled."

But wait, it's not that at all...

"We don't like where the money went," said Peter Goldman, the director and managing attorney of the Washington Forest Law Center. "I personally would not call it a political slush fund; I'd call it a timber industry slush fund."

So let's keep in mind the figure $129 million doled out to help Forestry across all Canada. And look at what got dispersed:

$500 million to the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports, the American lobby group that sparked the latest round in the softwood lumber dispute in the first place

FOUR TIMES as much directly to 'the enemy'

$200 million to the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, an organization created to receive the funds and dominated by timber industry executives

Almost twice as much to AMERICAN forestry, AMERICAN communities, controlled by the very people who started this.

$150 million to the American Forest Foundation, which "promotes the interests of small forest landowners"

More to AMERICAN small forest owners than ALL of Canada got.
--- figures from Andrew Macleod's story in The Tyee

So when we see Dick Harris's smiling face in the paper as he hands over a niggardly $130,000 to talk us into being farmers, WTF are we doing cheering him? It's a slap in the face to the Fort's mill workers, and the electors that supported this clown. Let's keep that in mind if an election is called. You want to support a gov't of sycophants who'll willingly give 1,200 times as much to the American Forest Foundation as they'll give to you? Let's tack on the $2 million to train people for jobs that aren't here and recalculate. That's only 75 times as much to the A.F.F. alone. 250 times as much to C.O.F.I. the bastards who crippled our whole Industry.
Is this the type of 'representation' you deserve? The figures make Chretien's Adscam look bush league. This is ONE BILLION dollars to the blackmailers, to keep up the blackmail, because they're too chicken to stand up for their own country!

June 10 - Big Day - New Possibilities

June 10 is the day potential buyers of Pope & Talbots mills must file by. Reports indicate six expressions of interest so far, and a Vancouver Sun report mentions the possibility of a seventh, by the investor behind the revival of Port Alice.
That one is interesting in that the overall plan would include $250 million investment to turn some of the wood and pulp waste into ethanol fuel instead of wasting food products for production, in the largest refinery in Canada!
Several interests include both the mill here and the pulp mill in Mackenzie.
-Read the whole story in the Sun

P&T Sale Opened to Other Buyers, Mackenzie On The Mind

BC Supreme Court ruled against AP&P and the sale of the Takla Mill is now open to other buyers. The Court ruled AP&P had it's chance, failed to close the deal and now has no right to try to claim the mill for a paltry $6 million. It will have to compete against any potentially higher offers from the open market. PricewaterhouseCooper (the bankruptcy trustee) says it has received 6 expressions of interest and thinks it can get a much better offer.
The Court will also be ruling on how much the Province of BC will be on the hook for cleanup should the mill, the one in Mackenzie and Harmac go down for good.
---here's the story reported by The Sun
Meanwhile Even Our Closest Neighbours Have Mackenzie On The Mind
as the Prince George Citizen headlines

Mackenzie hoping buyer will operate mill

then goes on to quote Mayor Rob MacDougall about the Fort St. James mill! Nice going, Rob! Not your fault for their mistake, but it shows what happens when one town screams, yells and hits the streets and the other town doesn't. Pretty obvious that a more activist approach should be endorsed at the next Council meeting.
More about the Court ruling is included in the Citizen article including this juicy tidbit:

PT Pindo Deli's lawyer Nicholas Hughes told the court during the hearing that his client should not be “tarred” for cancelling a separate deal with Pope & Talbot for three of its pulp mills. He also said if the deal goes ahead the Fort St. James mill could be operating in three months.
The receiver disputed that timeline as being too short considering other issues that needed to be resolved.

AP&P blowing smoke or confirmation that the troops will be out all summer even with the best possible result of all this. Explains why the govt's are considering EI extensions (a dole) but not considering shelling out money to hire the unemployed to clean out some of the deadwood.
---read the miscaptioned story

###########30#########

Gov't Take Over P&T?

Well yesterday's rally didn't seem to get beyond Prince George, with no major newspaper picking up the story. Diddly-squat on CTV news, a family of ducks was more important to them, while Global continues its obsession with Mackenzie.
Hers's a report from the PG Citizen that mentions the rally in passing while it interviews rally leader Winson Cheung for his idea of having the gov't run the mill while it finds a buyer. As Winson mentions, workers would work, the town would remain stable, and it would be cheaper in the long run that paying out EI for no results and watching the Fort die. Money from the operation may not be good until a buyer is found, but productivity and results from a closed mill and workers on EI is a complete zero.

Winson, you're an NDPer at heart or a True Liberal just like me. nfortunately Gordon Campbell et al. are not even close to Liberal. They're dyed-in-the-wool Tories masqeurading as Liberals, bent oon implementing free-market ideology on BC at any cost.
Let's never forget how a party so hell-bent on trashing the NDP they bad-mouthed the fast ferries even after they won their first election. Perhaps only to the public's surprise (not to theirs, they're chuck filled with car-salesman support), we discovered you couldn't sell those things for a nickel they'd been trashed so bad. Even when Nova Scotia companies were buying fast ferries from Australia!
Look back again at the Skeena Mill in Terrace. The prop-up by the NDP is now a neo-con legend as to how gov't intervention 'only messes up the inevitable'.
These people WANT the mills to go down. They WANT it to get so bad they can justify raw log exports and use the "at least the loggers are working, better than nothing" mantra that is bought buy so many of the richest per capita resource country in the world so easily. The few of us own so much, and we'll take the least we can get. That leaves the fewest of us few (or foreigners) to take the most they can get. THe core of neo-con ideology. I'm okay Jack, you can always work at Wendy's.
Terrace was devastated by the Skeena closure, it took years to recover and for a decade was a skeletal blight upn the town, a depressing reminder of what once was. Terrace has recovered, but it's geographical position as a central market for big-box outlets to draw from Terrace, Rupert, Kitimat and the Hazeltons was the only reason why. Some mines nearby HAVE opened, and are not mere promises. Had Skeena gone down on Day One, many of the residents would be gone. No workers to attract those big-box stores. No population to even consider the investment that did happen. The NDP bail-out bought time and saved that community!
So Winson, even though your idea makes the most common sense and is better for everyone all around, there's no hope of it being implemented.

The Fort Fights Back

After a disappointing start where no out of town reporters, politicians, and not too many protestors gathered here at Cottonwood Park, the voice of the community got to roar in Vanderhoof. The Roundtable on Forestry got to encounter it's first rally and paid for its snubbing of Fort St. James.


Photo and quotations from Opinion250.com

“We want to be part of the solution “ says rally organizer Winson Cheung a former employee of Pope and Talbot “We don’t think the meetings should be held behind closed doors.”
This session was supposed to have been held in Fort St. James, another of the B.C. communities hit hard by the downturn in the forest industry.

Pope and Talbot Dies Quietly

The tortuous death is finally over. Assets were put into receivership over the weekend and P&T's mills will be sold off to whoever, for whatever purpose by the bankruptcy trustees.
-----the SUN

Fort St. James and Mackenzie will each get $2 million from Victoria for retraining. For what and where is the big question. There aren't jobs for 250 welders here.....
----PG Citizen

Result of yesterday's court proceedings

At the end of yesterday's Pope & Talbot court proceedings, the decision was made to continue with the orderly shut down of the pulp mills while a new search is started for a buyer(s).

--foresttalk.com
The fate of Takla sawmill was not discussed. That was touched on in court May 5, where the proceedings of the sale were described as a "Monkey's Wedding". P&T is still hoping for a buyer, and there are persistent rumours they would like to sell the FSJ mill and the Mackenzie pulp mill as a package.
---this story also at foresttalk.com