Cash Not Land to Compensate MacMillan Bloedel for Park Land
8/27/99
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Title: CASH, NOT LAND, for MACMILLAN BLOEDEL Likely
Source: Environment News Service
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 17, 1999
VICTORIA, British Columbia, Canada, August 17, 1999 (ENS) - The
British Columbia government is expected to decide shortly
on how to compensate MacMillan Bloedel for land it turned over the
province for parks. Now it appears as if cash rather than land will
be the form of compensation.
MacMillan Bloedel said the company lost 5.75 million cubic metres of
mature timber when the government created new parks on
productive forest land in 1991 and 1995.
Last March, the provincial government negotiated an $83.75-million
agreement with MacMillan Bloedel.
The cash-strapped B.C. government was hoping to compensate the timber
company in Crown land, but in a series of public
meetings such outrage was expressed at the proposal that Forest
Minister Dave Zirnhelt acknowledges that public opinion is
unmistakable.
"We were looking for a non-cash solution in this matter because of the
province's fiscal situation, but there are some things you can't
do sometimes," Zirnhelt told the "Vancouver Sun" newspaper on the
weekend.
In June, MacMillan Bloedel and Weyerhaueser announced a merger, which
if approved would place any land transferred as
compensation in the hands of the giant U.S. based multi-national
timber company. When the merger was announced, public anger
over possible land transfer to a U.S. based company reached fever
pitch.
Victoria lawyer David Perry, who handled the consultations, said in
his report to the government that the compensation should be
cash, not land transfers.
Environmentalists and other members of the public expressed concern
that transfers of Crown land would set a precedent for other
such payments in the future. More than 95 percent of the province is
Crown, or government held, land.
Forest conservationists worry that placing timberlands in private
hands removes them from the requirements of the Forest Practices
Code with regard to raw log exports and other timber management
standards, a concern Perry reflected in his report.
Perry also recommended that the province develop a clear policy on
compensation for loss of resource rights and that there be
public input to review alternate forest tenures.
He suggested that extensive consultation be held with more than a
dozen First Nations groups affected by the issue before
decisions are made.
Some environmentalists oppose any compensation at all. "We do not
support any settlement that would see [MacMillan Bloedel]
receiving cash as compensation," said Chris Genovali of Raincoast
Conservation Society, said in a statement Saturday.
"For (any) multinational timber company to demand compensation as a
result of the protection of public forest land is the height of
absurdity," Genovali said.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 1999