FU

GEE, IT seems like just a
few short months ago
“(Febrizary 1994, actually)
~ that Mikey Harcourt was
jetting over to Europe to
assure anybody who would
listen that B.C.’s logging
“: practices were perfectly
OK, not to worry, and, by
_ the way, all those hysterical |
<eco-freaks getting them-
_ Selves arrested at Clayoquot
-, Sound en masse are just
“erezy troublemakers. ;

Al the time some 800 protest-
ers were hitting the legal buzzsaw
and Mikey was burning through
the travel budget to champion his
‘favorite little company,
“MacMillan Bloedel,:I (normally a
mild-mannered columnist with
‘slightly leftist tendencies) was
forced to write these searing -

;; words:

“Harcourt has, of course, left
~ himself subject to the worst con-
“.demnations of all future genera-
“tions of not just British.
Columbians but Canadians every-
where, and a sizable percentage of
the human race — those who will
never have the option of visiting a
“place such as Clayoquot Sound, as
“it now exists,

.” “Historical footnote- - wise,
Mikey has shot himself not just in.
the foot but through the family
“jewels .:.. We're talking Mike .

-: Harcourt’s Waterloo.”

” Well, times change, ‘and there’ Ss
nothing like an election-on the

- horizon to sharpen a premier’ $s

: : sensibilities,

; ; Fsavored the recent ‘spectacle
of Forests Minister Andrew Petter,
on behali of Premier Mikey,. :
announcing that the British’

Columbia government would

implement fully the 300-page

-- Teportof Fred Bunnell’s panel on

" logging i in Clayoquot. . ..

2s ft calls for.an‘end to conven-"

tional clearcutting, and a reduc-, a

onof the allowable harvest to °
i about half of the ‘current official -
; cut,
‘It was also delightful to hear
. Mac-Blo boss Robert Findlay —

“talking about getting‘on with

drafting a plan to make the opera-

- tional changes necessary to’ com-.

“ply with the new standards, and

“even — ‘get this! — making the

“Clayoquot region into an interna-

“tional centre for forest research - |

‘and experimentation:

Something Mac-Blo, and B, C.,
could brag about!"

:. Politics being politics, I sup-*

pose one shouid just praise the

strictly
personal

deathbed conversion of Mikey and
his gang to the ceuse of outlawing
clearcutting, and not drag them

_ over the coals one more time for

their previous record of eco-trea-
son..:- be

But that memory of Mikey
charging off to Europe, back when

‘polls showed 60% of British

Columbians opposed to a-ban on
logging old-growth forests if such

‘action meant a loss of jobs, to go

pound the drum on behalf of the

- selfless corporate saints in the

executive offices of Mac-Blo,
well, it tingers, rather like the bad
smell long after a sulky skunk has
departed. :
However, having said all these

cruel and unpleasant things. let us

be fair.

There are other lingering odars
in the political atmosphere, and
some of them come from skunks
so hugely nausea-inducing that
virtually nothing Premicr Mikey
could do would stink worse.

I refer, of course, to Alcan

‘ Aluminium's shameful Kemano 2

project, and the way in which
Brian Mulroney and his cabinet
flunkies, Tom Siddon, Kim

-. Campbell, Benoit Bouchard. John -
_ Crosbie and Jean Charest, teamed

“ up to exempt the company from.

. an environmental assessment

_ review, the only time ‘such a /
“-mega-project has been let off the

hook entirely when it came.to

. examining its ecological impact.

Not content to have provided

Alcan with a rubber stamp of
“approval to go ahead with its $1-

billion hydroelectric project

-through a 1987 settlement agree-
“ment and carte blanche for the
~rape.of the Nechako River through -
_the cabinet exemption in 1990, the

Mulroney government reached at
least six other backroom deals
_ With the company to let it have its
way. :
The big question was always: -
why?

And the answer, it should have

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DRAPERIES,
TRACKS AND
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Labour $8.50 per
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aii

custom BEDSPREADS & BLIND:
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For FREE Estimates

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Serving the North Shore for 24 years.

been clear all along, was connec- ‘
tions.
Alcan had two members of its

- boards of directors who had been

made companions of the Order of
Canada by the Tories, another
director who served Mulroney as
American ambassador, three more
directors who sat on various Tory
advisory bodies, and two directors
who were Conservative senators.
Did they have behind-the-
scenes political clout, or what?
For Alcan to whine piteously,
after Mulroney’s gang had been
dumped from power and the
Kemano 2 project finally met its
doom. that the company, was:
somchow owed anything — let
atone the $535 million it is claim-
ing — amounts‘to corporate arro-
gance of a breath-taking variety.
All of which comes to this:
while Premier Mikey might have

_Jooked and acted like a stuinp-lov-
ing lout for a while when it came /

to Clayoquot, or, for that matter,
logging in general, on the issue of
Kemano and Alcan, while he
might have.been a little slow in
stepping into the breach, he is per-

feetly correct in taking the posi-
/ tion that British Columbia doesn't

owe Alcan a red cent.

Said Mikey: “I've said no to,
compensation, exclamation mark,
exclamation mark, for quite a
while now.

“Eve put it in writing, No
cheque, no taxpayers’ money is”

going to Alcan to compensate for ”

cancellation” of Kemano 2.
Stick.to your guns, Mikey. .
Whatever agreement eventually

- gets worked out between the cor-
_., porate bullies at Alcan and the
“B.C. government, never forget that

they played with political fire to
get their way, and if they get’

“ burned now, tough bananas.

“MISSAN:» MAINA: © GMG ©

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Sunday, July 16, 1995 ~ North Shore News - 7

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