From: Glen Barry
Subject: 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originally made loans to Al-Pac with the understanding that the money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