Hey Gordo...

taking notes?

First of all, we had no

First of all, we had no "economic boom", it was a lie from the addled brains of economists and bought politicians.

The deregulated money creation powers of the banks flooded the world with imaginary money, licencing the takeover and exploitation of the world's resources by the multinational corporate mafia with worthless nothing. But any racket can only last for so long.

The same money creation powers also permitted the overcapitalization of many industries, including the forest industry, resulting in unnecessary automation, demanding huge energy and resource inputs, while sidelining and eliminating human labour.

Contrary to claims, it didn't lower, but inflated costs and prices, as we can witness in our stores.

30 years ago the local mills were booming with twice the labour force, plus there were hundreds of contractors and small mills all over. Now the forest industry is in the hands of a half dozen mega corporations and real private enterprise is dead.

A couple of guys can make a good living with a small, relatively inexpensive mill and about 50 loads of lumber per year.

The old economic calculations maintained that a job shouldn't have more than one wage year of investment.

In the automated mills, each job now requires up to 50 or more age years of investment, plus 400 loads of timber per job. This is not economics, but economic suicide that feeds only the banks and the corporate mafia, taking income from real people.

Last, but not least, economies built on exports must and will collapse sooner or later. As we're now finding out and so will the Chinese one day. And as world poverty grows, the future doesn't look very good.

Ed Deak.

What good is an economy if no one works in it!

As Ed said, a sustainable local forest industry is possible if only we lower our expectations on profit and increase our expectations and value of the social benefit; and the scale of logging would also ensure an environment that may grow trees and provide livlihoods for generations.

Excellent work Kim!

I couldn't help but remember Hank Ketchum's endorsement of Gordon Campbell after reading:

"In fact, what three B.C. forest companies did with a portion of their rebates was to invest in U.S. mills," Parfitt says. He notes that Canfor Corporation, West Fraser Mills and Interfor altogether spent more than US$620 million to purchase or upgrade U.S. sawmills.

It all made sense. West Fraser has been exporting to their mills across the border since the liberals came to power. The Softwood Lumber Deal made it all possible for us to get screwed. The Heartland strategy was one of the biggest farces in BC's political history.

Campbell couldn`t run a lemonade stand

The race to the bottom,first the logs and jobs get out-sourced to USA, then to China,I can`t believe how stupid the voters are in BC,the forestry/mill jobs "Will never recover" if we don`t stop shipping the raw logs,value added here,if the companies the countries had another source for raw logs they would get them from already........
My Fu...... god man,if we can`t have the advantage when we own the resource,oil n gas doesn`t employ the people does,if forestry doesn`t recover the lower mainland will choke on itself for lack of funding,the building boom is over,all that is left is debt...........
Campbell couldn`t run a lemonade stand.

Raw Log Exports

I live and operate a small business in Qualicum Beach. I have to travel on the inter Island Highway a lot, going to Nanaimo at least three or four times a week. It is a rare trip that I don't see a number of Lumber Truck hauling raw logs. I do not know where they are going, but I have never seen a Highway Inspection of these off road trucks, often traveling well over the speed limit endangering all who travel there.

I would also like to point out, that after all the excavation is complete, and only buffer trees remain, people will likely fill up the central section of Vancouver Island, at least as many as the potable water will sustain. I have walked around some of these logged out areas and they are suitable for flat unattractive development, examples of which can be found in the dozens North of Nanaimo and west of the coast. The circumstances that will be made available to developers, will likely be cheap to develope, but will not provide residence with a quality of life that I would appreciate. This of course says nothing of the displaced wildlife.A lot of imagination could have been used and at the same time the raw resource could be supplying a value added circumstance. But there seems to be no patience for such things. The coast of Vancouver Island is loaded up with resorts and fabulous homes, but like in Florida, the Central area will likely house those the service the few. This is a prescription for an unhealthy circumstance. Gordon Campbell may be able to win over people, but his legacy going forward will be one of embarasment for him and his family. He has raped this Island, I hope he is proud of himself.

Lary Waldman

grim picture

If the unemployment figures quoted in this article do not include the substantial number of forest based contractors who are currently out of work then the 'unemployment' statistics for this industry are much grimmer than shown. Since these contractors don't qualify for EI benefits, the economic picture of their households and the small communities they live in is pretty bleak.

The so called "free trade

The so called "free trade agreements" are international treaties giving away the democratic decision making powers of peoples, to the free movement of capital by the multinational mafia to search and destroy.

Raw log exports can not be stopped according NAFTA and WTO rules, that specify that once a "commodity" starts crossing borders, the volume must be maintained, or increased, but not cut back even to save the lives of citizens. This includes our natural gas, even if Canadians freeze to death, it must be kept flowing to the last drop.

Campbell always sells chunks of BC and public properties to foreigners, i.e. BC Rail, so they can not be retaken and it gives them the right to unlimited profits into eternity, or else they can sue to kangaroo "free trade" courts, sitting and making their binding decisions in secret.

In short, the main question is, can any form and degree of democracy survive the "free trade" fraud ?

And now another secret SPP conference is coming up, giving more of Canada away .

What's the point having any armed forces, when the country is for sale ? Who would be crazy to attack, when they can buy us, with our governments handing us over to them on a platter ?

Ed Deak, Big Lake.

Raw Log Export

We used to see freighters tied up to one dock or another with rafts of logs beside them. Not so much any more. There is a log sort in Port Coquitlam that grades an bucks the logs so they will fit in 40' containers. I have no idea where they go but I betcha it's out of the country.

@Snert

They go to China and Korea......

Since they were sending back thousands of empty containers,they decided to fill them with logs,and that is why the logging(milling,value added) will....."Never Recover".......

They can ship them to China/Korea,have them millied,ship them back cheaper than we can mill them,the reason........

Because we BCers don`t work for 2.00$ per day....

Same thing with all the manufactoring in the USA,it will never come back,we in north America,the middle class,the wannabe middle class,must make a stand........
I know it would be difficult for the people cutting the trees but...........

We BCers have to go on strike,no raw logs shipped period,short term pain for long-term gain,because in this world depression,the next move will be slaves shipped into Canada to cut and truck the logs,it will happen.....
It happened on the Golden ears bridge,the Canada line,it`s happening in agriculture,resorts.....

The new "Global economy" is not lifting up the world,it`s dragging the middle class down to their level.......
And that won`t work for us,we can`t even eat for 2.00$ per day.

Cheers-Eyes Wide Open

So much mythology to overcome.........

Thanks to the deliberate, purely self-seving lies promoted by the IWA / COFI cabal at the time of our first serious exporting of logs in the late 80s ans early 90s, misconceptions re that situation remain and confuse analysis of today's situation.

The main effect of log exports at the time, when exports NEVER exceeded 3.7 % of BC's Coastal production, was that the Japanese - and others - were paying up to 100% more for our premium logs in the Coastal market, and then perhaps 30% more in getting them to Japan and marketing them there.

The immediate result was that BC mills could not afford to mill premium logs, and so prices for the rest rose comparably. As I've written here before, I saw what were formerly pulp logs being diverted to the sawlog sorts, and logs formerly left in the bush becoming salable as pulp logs.

Clearly, our traditionally subsidised mills were faced with having to pay the going world price for their logs, and so the exporting was shut down (except for the North Coast). This, despite the fact that not one job was lost. In fact jobs were actually gained, as was revenue to the Crown

The real reason was very different, as Peter Pearse reported in his scathing report of Nov 2001 (I've forgotten it's name and you can only get a highly watered-down, inoffensive version of it on the Web now anyway)

He painted a picture of a milling system that converted 50% of the log volume fed into it, into chips for pulp!! He stated that the mills made the same money in chip sales as in lumber sales!! Anyone, other than a blind follower of Jack Munro would recognise that only a grossly subsidised industry could get away with such grossly outdated mills and such gross uncaring for real value in its raw material.

The underlying reason for gov't allowing this to happen was, as the 1985 Woodbridge Reed Report pointed out, that BC's Coastal thermo-chemical pulp mills had to be subsidised, since while they were faced with competitors having dirt-cheap raw materials like bagasse, the fibrous waste from sugar mills, they depended upon expensive wood fibre and only recovered 60% of that, as compared to 99% from Interior thermo-mechanical mills. Let the pulp mills go down and communities like Powell River, Campbell River, Nanaimo and Port Alberni are in the soup.

So the only accurate story about our Coastal wood industry that can written has to document the criminal lack of reinvestment, and the equally criminal waste of resources and corrupt subsidisation.

More follows

mythology con't

Above, Snert declares that $2.00 a day wages for millworkers in China and Korea render our workers too expensive. I'm not familiar with the wage rates in those countries, but I do know that in the days I refer to above, Japanese labour costs mirrored ours and that they could pay double for their logs only because they employed the most modern technology, like high-tension thin-kerf bandsaws. They then recovered ALL the lumber value inherent in the log by making the required specialty cuts as they broke the log down.

That is directly opposite to our methodology, which depends for profitability upon volume throughput and minimum labour.

So the Japanese could pay double for the raw log not because they halved the labour input, but because they ADDED labour and greatly increased the time needed to mill it. At the time, the Japanese were the biggest producers of lumber in the world, and maybe they still are.

I suspect the Koreans and Chinese are following the Japanese model - and likely under their supevision - rather than ours.

Howcome the Swedes, with labour costs higher than ours, could produce IKEA, the largest furniture maker in the world? This is of particular inteest because IKEA made its mark using Alder, which until very recently our industry has been paying people to kill.LOL

So go figure.

Ooops

Geez, did it again. It was Powell River pe, not Snert who mentioned the $2.00 / hr wages.

No big deal, just forestalling someone jumping on it :-)

@Me2

A couple of points,first off with Japan.......

They are in a financial SUNAMI...in the last decade their debt has risen from 99% of GDP to 170% of GDP....

Here is a link that explains how Japan is,well to say the least,COOKED

http://www.frontlinethoughts.com/pdfmwo07109.pdf

Secondly,and this is wear it gets really scary,some economies are recovering but.....

For the first time in history(well it`s rare) -What we have going on is a "JOBLESS RECOVERY"

I will try and be brief,banks,industrials,tech,even wall street recovering,at least to the point of making money,but without hiring people,this is a seismac shift,tens of millions tossed out of work with no one intending or needing to hire them,the outsourcing to slave labour countries is on the rise,or should I say,still on the rise,so this recession/depression has literaly created, here in north America a sub-section of tens of million with no purpose in life,nothing for them to do,well at least nothing for them to be paid to do.
And it`s happening in Canada as well,can you imagine,tens of millions with no support,so either we have that many people become street dwellers/homeless or if they get supported by goverment will mean that between the young,the old,the new homeless plus the usual group that dis-engages from society your talking 50% of the people being a drain on the remaining corporations....
Now add the outsourcing,tax loop-holes and the pure unadulterated greed by the few and there is a recipe for either a military state or unprecedented public anarchy........

And on a fundamental basis,and Ed Deak up at Big Lake says it best,how man power capitol,not robotic technocracy is the only way it will work....
What advantage to the citizens,not the corporation to the citizens would there be if a once 500 manpower saw mill needs but 10 employees,great for the corporation but a death blow to mankind......
In my opinion,the world isn`t flat, Thomas Freidman can go Fock himself,the global economy isn`t working,it`s creating the "Global Peasent Syndrome"
By the way,that`s going to be the title of my next book.
Either we,the people make a stand now,before it`s to late,the forestry won`t recover,even is the housing market takes off down south it won`t recover,the neo-con will give our land away(as private lands) and every log will leave the province,this has nothing to do with technology or efficeincy.
Salmon gone/rivers gone/forests gone/logs gone/our souls gone......
Lastly,there will always be tens of thousands of empty containers going back to Asia,and under neo-con rule they will always be filled with logs,their going back anyways so there is no cost in putting logs in them,so we,the new "Global Peasent" we be left out on this end,and the other end,remember,there are 2 billion slave workers available to do all the work,I don`t intend to join that group.

Cheers-Eyes Wide Open

Sorry about that link

I found my error,here`s the link

http://www.frontlinethoughts.com/pdf/mwo071009.pdf

Japans pending disaster,enjoy the read