From: Glen Barry 
Subject: BIOD AA: Mitsubishi Pulp Mill in Canada Gets Bail-Out
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ACTION ALERT
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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Mitsubishi Pulp Mill in Canada Gets Taxpayer Bail-Out
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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.

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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originally made loans to Al-Pac with the understanding that the money 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