And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] (S.I.S.I.S.) writes: PROVINCE HANDS OVER LAND IN 'HORRIBLE PRECEDENT' The Globe & Mail, March 18, 1999 by Jane Armstrong [S.I.S.I.S. note: The following mainstream news article may contain biased or distorted information and may be missing pertinent facts and/or context. It is provided for reference only.] Vancouver -- The B.C. government has agreed to hand over thousands of hectares of Crown land to forest giant MacMillan Bloedel in a precedent-setting deal that will exempt the land from environmental protection. The deal, which saved the province tens of millions of dollars, has angered environmentalists, who say the province should not have brokered public land. Almost 94 per cent of B.C. land is Crown-owned, and companies logging it must adhere to the Forest Practices Code, which, among other things, regulates how much can be clear-cut. "This is a horrible precedent for the province," environmental lawyer David Boyd said. "Once the land is privatized, we've lost control of it. It's a breach of trust." The land package is the price the province offered to pay MacMillan Bloedel in exchange for a series of parks the company created on the north end of Vancouver Island in 1994 -- a move that effectively ruled out logging there. Karen Wristen, executive director of the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, said the deal is dangerous because handing over choice land to the private sector as the payment for creating parkland is too steep a price. The deal angers environmentalists because it gives MacMillan Bloedel free rein to log as it wishes on some of the most environmentally sensitive lands in the province. The deal calls on the province to provide up to 20,000 hectares of Crown land on the north end of Vancouver Island, a swath of land roughly 50 times the size of Vancouver's Stanley Park. And it exempts MacMillan Bloedel from adhering to the Forest Practices Code on another 90,000 hectares, which may include its properties near Clayoquot Sound, in the Queen Charlotte Islands and on the Sunshine Coast on B.C.'s Mainland. The Forest Practices Code governs loggers on Crown land. Among other things, it restricts clear-cutting and protect streams and rivers. The deal has also angered aboriginal groups, which have outstanding claims on the same patches of land. "For the province to eliminate [this land] from the treaty table is an act of bad faith," said Rod Naknakim, acting chairman of the Nations Treaty Society, which represents five bands on Vancouver Island and has been negotiating with the province since last July. "We should have been consulted. The failure to do that creates a lot more problems." One of the main reasons environmentalists are angry is that the deal is the result of a well-intentioned plan to protect environmentally rich lands from development and logging in the first place. The province in 1994 created a string of parks encompassing more than 700 square miles on the north end of Vancouver Island, a move aimed in part to placate environmentalists opposed to logging. However, MacMillan Bloedel had logging rights on some of that Crown-owned land that was converted to parks. A provincial law says the province has to compensate a logging company if it removes more than 5 per cent of its logging rights. However, the province eventually decided it owed the forest company nothing. Three years later, MacMillan Bloedel launched a lawsuit, arguing that the province should compensate it for converting land earmarked for logging into parks. Environmentalists agreed that MacMillan Bloedel should be compensated. But they assumed the province would hand the company a lump sum -- not land. The value of the land and cutting rights are estimated at $83.7-million. A cabinet document, obtained by The Globe and Mail, says the land-deal option will save the province money. However, the same document notes the deal could create potential public and native concerns. MacMillan Bloedel played down fears about the implications of the deal. Chief forester Bill Cafferata said the company is committed to phasing out clear-cutting. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: ECOCIDE, USURPATION AND GENOCIDE: SOVEREIGNTY IS THE ANSWER! Letters to the Globe and Mail - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-: S.I.S.I.S. Settlers In Support of Indigenous Sovereignty P.O. Box 8673, Victoria, "B.C." "Canada" V8X 3S2 EMAIL : <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> WWW: http://kafka.uvic.ca/~vipirg/SISIS/SISmain.html SOVERNET-L is a news-only listserv concerned with indigenous sovereigntist struggles around the world. To subscribe, send "subscribe sovernet-l" in the body of an email message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information on sovernet-l, contact S.I.S.I.S. :-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
