From: Glen BarrySubject: BIOD AA: Mitsubishi Pulp Mill in Canada Gets Bail-Out Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Status: RO ACTION ALERT *********************************************** WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS Mitsubishi Pulp Mill in Canada Gets Taxpayer Bail-Out *********************************************** Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises http://forests.org/ 3/19/98 OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE Alberta-Pacific's pulp mill in Alberta province, Canada, has been given at $155 million bailout at the expense of Canadian taxpayers. Please respond to Rainforest Action Network's request for letters urging the company to set aside wilderness preserves and respect indigenous rights. g.b. ******************************* RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE: Title: Mitsubishi Pulp Mill Gets Taxpayer Bail-Out Source: Rainforest Action Network Status: Distribute freely with credit to source Date: March 1998 An industrial logging operation owned by the world's largest multinational corporation might not seem like a deserving candidate for welfare benefits. But Alberta's Premier, Ralph Klein, recently gave the Alberta-Pacific (Al-Pac) mill the most generous of handouts - forgiveness of $155 million in loans Al-Pac owed back to the taxpayers of Alberta. Al-Pac, according to the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, is now "the most heavily subsidized mill in history." Rainforest Action Network has reported on Al-Pac's devastating operations several times since 1993, when the mill opened for regular production. The mill, which cost approximately $1.3 billion to build, is financed in part by several Mitsubishi-owned banks; Mitsubishi Corporation is also a 43% owner in the mill. The province of Alberta originally made loans to Al-Pac with the understanding that the money would be returned when the mill became profitable. To this day, the mill has not ever had a profitable quarter. Al-Pac's debt forgiveness brings new scrutiny to the mill's business practices; in its four years of operation, Al-Pac has polluted adjacent lands belonging to the Lubicon Cree, one of Alberta's First Nation (native) people. In addition, Al-Pac has refused to allow the Lubicon people access to their territorial lands -- which the company claims as its own. So far, Al-Pac has rejected all proposals to create protected tribal parks inside its logging concession, entitling native people to hunt, fish, and harvest on their land while protecting it from industrial logging. Meanwhile, the provincial government of Alberta has given Al-Pac the authority to monitor its own environmental performance without any independent oversight -- while the company systematically liquidates a chunk of Alberta's old growth boreal forest nearly the size of Indiana. To preserve its lifeline of government subsidies, Al-Pac continues to promise jobs for the province of Alberta; with a worldwide slump in the pulp market, though, and increasing automation, pulp and paper industry jobs are being lost at the rate of 20% per decade -- leaving Albertans with ravaged forests, a sluggish economy, and the burden of debt for a project they did not support in the first place. WHAT YOU CAN DO It is not too late for Alberta-Pacific to take responsibility for its actions. Community members are calling on Al-Pac to set aside wilderness within their Forest Management areas, and to return traditional lands to the stewardship of the Lubicon Cree. According to Gray Jones of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, "Al-Pac has a real opportunity to abandon its past misdeeds and show some leadership in the 21st century - by respecting the land rights of First Nations, and by setting aside tracts of undisturbed wilderness within its logging territory." Tell Mitsubishi's Al-Pac that they cannot continue to plunder Alberta's forest resources with impunity. Here is a sample letter (first-class postage to Canada is 46 cents): Bill Hunter, General Manager Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Box 8000, Boyle, Alberta TOA OMO, Canada Dear Mr. Hunter, I have recently learned that the $155 million debt Alberta Pacific owes provincial taxpayers has been erased. It troubles me that your mill is subsidized to destroy old growth forests without the consent of First Nations people, the rightful owners. In your new position as General Manager, one of the best steps you could take would be to turn over significant wilderness areas within your Forest Management areas to First Nations people like the Lubicon Cree - a step that would begin to address their land claims while protecting priceless forests. Now that the Premier of Alberta has given the Al-Pac mill a $155 million gift, please let me know what you intend to do in return for the people of Alberta. I am especially interested in knowing how you plan on improving Alberta-Pacific's dismal environmental record. I will continue to monitor your progress on this issue, and support the rights of First Nations people to protect their land. ###RELAYED TEXT ENDS### This document is for general distribution. All efforts are made to provide accurate, timely pieces; though ultimate responsibility for verifying all information rests with the reader. Check out our Gaia Forest Conservation Archives at URL= http://forests.org/ Networked by Ecological Enterprises, grbarry@students.wisc.edu