A free ride? Sounds like something the NDP will be interested in!

The little town that can.With the soft wood agreement the way it stands,it will be almost impossiable to change it without some kind of U.S. penality.Now if Mr Cambell's carbon tax was used to protect our enviroment then triple/quadduraple or 10 times it for any wood not processed in the forest district that it is cut in.Makes Cambell look good for his dumb a$$ carbon tax and then it forces the lumber companies to process wood locally.My heart and thoughts are with you.

Don't forget the free lunch Yama!

Good for this community to stand up and tell the province what it wants.

The "tieing of logs to the community" is very important and hopefully the people scream loudly that this needs to be changed back. The provincial government had no public support or mandate for the change of this in the first place.

If the provincial government tries to defend its previous action to remove the appurtance requirement because of the softwood lumber agreement--tell them to stuff the agreement. While the softwood agreement did have something to do with the removal of this protection of communities--it was done primarily to support our largest corporations to allow moving timber to any place they choose--for their corporate interests. If anything, the US will argue that this represents further subsidy to Canadian forest companies--because it does.

If you think about what this means to the level of recieved stumpage, you realise that the province ends up subsidising the removal of timber from these small remote communities. It does so by moving the appraisal point to the next community which has an operating sawmill and reduces the stumpage charged the amount that it takes to do this. The public then payes the log freight to a supermill facility in another town of which the corporation can make MORE money processing it. Ignore the logic and understand that this is what is really intended.

So not only does the economy of small town BC get killed, our stumpage revenues go down considerably to accommodate this corporate designed benefit.

Remember that prices and markets will improve--the more that they improve--the more incentive there is to reduce the stumpage by shipping the timber farther.

Quite the concern for communities dying around you, Yama. Hope fully you aren't employed at Costco, WalMart, the casino or any of the service shops that relies on drawing business from Mackenzie, Fort St James, Vanderhoof, etc.
Fort St James is on the slow road to recovery, this rally is to show that it is not fast enough for many of our citizens, and is not happening at all in other small towns around us.
We'd love to have an economy where appurtenance was not necessary, where business located beside it's supply. But that hasn't happened and won't when you toss in obstacles like a railway that won't run because we gave it away and the bean counters in another country make the decisions. Or a populace more afraid of offending the USA than of the USA dictating our forest policies.
The Concerned Citizens of Fort St James have suggested a significant Northern Living Allowance as either Federal or Provincial tax credit be instituted for communities along or North of Hwy16 to recognize the unfair burden of the Carbon Tax, as a political option that sidesteps the Softwood agreement.
The NDP bashing is absurd, as our Committees consist of supporters of all parties and economic sectors including business people like myself.
Suggest a solution and put your money where your mouth is instead of making flippant remarks. You're welcome to visit Fort St. James and meet people who have done just that, we need many more like them!

I must add another important point about what appurtance really means to the future of small town BC.
When the major licencees choose to shut down their operations in the smaller remote communities and ship their logs to other supermills in distant larger communities--because they will make more money--say goodbye to any other future operation in your community.
Once the existing major facilities are closed and the appraisal point is moved soon after--it puts any new operation at odds with the interests of the major corporations. If a new sawmill/reman operation wanted to operate locally it would force the appraisal point to be brought back to the local community--thus negating the subsidy intended to the majors. Government will not likely compromise their big corporate buddies and will find anyway possible to stop any new operations from setting up where they don't want them to be--and this is remote small town BC.
So appurtance requirements are essential today for what we have but they are also essential for any future forest industry to locate as well.

cryptkeeper, don't work yourself up into a tizzy over my reference to the NDP and the free ride (plus a free lunch).

It's good you are having a rally, but it's just too bad your effort will be used by the NDP as a means to get into government and really do some serious damage to the whole province.

Sorry but this site has enough NDP supporters crying a boat load of crocidile tears for the problems in Ft St James. So all I'm doing is pointing out what the NDP is up to, and not be-littling your effort.

Like the old saying goes, "You can pick your enemies, but you can't pick your friends!" So watch out for the NDP, because after all it is a free ride.

Yama, I'm not sure I understand your NDP phobia, If it is about the Skeena Cellulose subsidy or about union support as far as higher pulic sector wages. Your phobia may be realised in the current Liberal government. One look no further than all the corporate welfare Canfor has recieved in the form of reduced stumpage in Mackenzie when the multi-national whined about cost, and the Bobtail overpass so Canfor could continue to haul oversized loads to Isle Pierre. As far as public sector wages it would be good to be a Deputy minister for Mr Cambell's government. Carbon Tax? Sounds pretty NDP to me.. we may have to vote NDP in the next provincial election to slide this province a little more right.

YamaDooPolCat is always makeing stupid remarks I think its because he thinks this is his little playground and thinks he is funny { HeeHee }

I agree with lost it all.

Yama...There is something very contradictory about your strange outlook on this subject.

So what the NDP are going to jump into an opportunity to try to better their image in the north. People are concerned about what is happening now and what can help towards a better future. Blaming them for attaching themselves to anyone willing to help them is ridiculous not to mention blind of what is happening.

Campbell's MLA's are treated like minions or are too blind to understand that who voted for them are hurting as a result of who they voted for.

Its called democracy and you, Yama, can blindly follow the flag of a party or you can participate towards accountability and of doing the right thing to do for its own sake.

Good post woodchipper!
The regulations that tie logs to a specific mill within a community is probably the most important issue we are dealing with.
Small forestry based communities will live and die on that issue alone, and we all need to remember that!
However,it is also important to remember just who it was that changed that regulation in the first place, and why,because they are STILL not listening very well!
I wonder how many Campbell Liberal MLA's will show up at the rally?

My question is "Why are we subsidizing major corporations?"
It's bad enough to have individuals on the dole, but major corporations.

Loki.. I'm sure there are lots of explanations why our BC government has done this. Some are improper means to a proper end, some are proper means to an improper end and there are the situations where both an improper means and improper end is at work.

In the past, subsidies were likely to be provided to stimulate new businesses and job creation. This was "right or wrong" an attempt to reach a proper end, for the people.

Then there were the subsidies which enhanced viability so as to increase profitability and therefore stimulate banking confidence and expansion and sustain jobs and perhaps create a few more. Usually this occurred as a result of downturns in the market and industry sustained itself through these periods of low returns by monopolising the areas which they operated with the help of the ministry of forests. This is what was used to justify concentrating the industry and paying the survivor operations enough to prove that this worked. This is what you would call an improper means to an improper end as the government and the people would certainly lose the control of their forests by doing this.

The current situation is largely a product of the previous corporate concentration and that a handfull of CEOs can and do dictate to our government the way things will work in this province--on their terms and at their price. Anything which costs these corporations such as stumpage, employing people, competition, etc are what these corporations do not want to pay and now that the government is fully committed to this the only industry left, they recieve what they want and pronto.
The only job which MOF must do is to figure out how to sell these plans to the public. The deceptive, the elusive the counter productive actions to the people of the province so that the corporations get richer, quicker.
Token investments such as the wood waste system in Fort St John from the proceeds of the NCP plant fire insurance are the little political patts which you could call the most naieve of paybacks.

The appurtanancy requirement was an impediment to corporations asset value as they used to be fixed assets of limited size and local processing was obligated.
They are now in control of virtually all these forest resources to do what they like and where they like and with no competition. The people will recieve less employment and less stumpage. Generally anything which appears to be a good thing caused from the forest industry will be because we paid for it.
This is definitely a case of improper means and improper ends of which our government is fully committed to.

Yama the libs are champions in the free ride dept. Considering the fat raises and juicy contracts they hand out to their buds.

Free enterprise at work. Like it or not, this is the way it should be. Communism does not work, it never has and it never will. Mrs. James can't fix things, neither can Gordy.
It's that simple. Money talks. If there's no money to be made, go and make it somewhere else.
Taxpayers should not subsidize businesses.
End of story.

Taxpayers always ending subsidizing business to an extent, that's how this country got built. How do you think the railway got here? Or television and radio? Or highways and high-speed Internet?

And the building is far from finished. If left strictly to market forces area 250 would have 3rd world services and be even more of a "Northern Resource Extraction Co-Prosperity Sphere" Playland for Vancouver and Toronto to exploit.