Sawmill owner furious over new legislation
Terry Halifax
Northern News Services
Hay River (Mar 26/01) - A Hay River sawmill cut and stacked the last lumber it may produce last week, because of a stop work order issued by the Mackenzie Valley Environmental Review Board.
Sawmill owner Eugene Patterson describes the MVEIRB as a "bankruptcy enhancement and job elimination program," and was further insulted when he heard that the board was holding a public consultation meeting in Yellowknife, but never informed him.
"They're overseeing our demise and they won't even talk to us," Patterson said. "If they want to hear complaints I've got plenty for them."
On Dec. 19, 2000, Patterson's crew was set to go to work cutting timber near Pine Point when he received a stop work order from the environmental review board.
Patterson said he tries to get into the bush around the last week in November, before too much snow has fallen, but when the ground is frozen solid.
"It takes us 85 days to log 10,000 cubic meters; that's about 70 or 80 truckloads."
Without logs to mill from this winter's harvest, Patterson's equipment will sit idle, but he still has overhead cost to maintain. He spent much of last week curtailing those expenses.
"We cancelled our bank operating loan today, we have to cancel the insurance on our trucks, diesel fuel delivery, standby electrical service
If the government refuses his application for next year, he'll have to sell-off his equipment.
"If they come back and say we can't have any timber next year either, we'll have to auction everything off," he said. "We could make a living with it indefinitely but we'll have to sell it off for about a third of its value ... and then try to live with it the rest of my life."
Ken Weagle, Executive Director for the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board said they had approved and issued a permit for Patterson, but the community of Fort Resolution called for and assessment to be done.
"They actually had their land-use permit and the community of Fort Resolution turned around and referred it to the EIRB," he said. "For the time being, the permit is null and void."
Steve Cuthbert, general manager of the Deninu K'ue Development Corporation in Fort Resolution said the assessment was recommended by local trappers.
"The trappers of the area were supportive of (Patterson) taking logs and milling them here," Cuthbert said. "They didn't like the fact that somebody from outside the area was cutting down the trees here and taking them outside the community to be milled."
Patterson offered to pay the trappers $5,000 each for lifting their traps and offered the band over $100,000 to cut the timber, but that wasn't enough, so they ordered the assessment.
Faced with low prices for his product Patterson said it's been years since his mill has seen a profit, but the operation wasn't losing money either.
"The price of lumber is the lowest it's been in 12 years," he said. "The housing starts are down in the states and the Japanese market is absolutely lost -- they're getting most of their lumber from Russia."
He sells most of his lumber in the US for around $200 US per 1000 board feet -- much cheaper than his southern competitors because he has absorb freight costs too.
He says one advantage to milling in the NWT is that under the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA), the NWT is not restricted by a quota, but that may change in two weeks, when a new agreement on softwood lumber is negotiated with the US.
"We're not going to have any lumber to sell anyway, so it doesn't make much difference to us," he said.
Weagle said an assessment will be conducted by the MVEIRB, who will make recommendations to the project and forward the assessment to the minister for final approval.
"The minister will accept, reject or suggest modifications to the recommendations," he said. "Once the minister has signed off on that, it will come to us to re-issue that permit."
Any recommendations from the board and the minister will be included in the issuance of the new permit.
Patterson said he's not holding his breath waiting for a response from Ottawa and hopes to put his crew to work this spring with tree planting and cutting firewood.
"There's no limit to it," he said. "They expect to have (the environmental assessment) done by the end of April, but the minister can take as much time as he wants."
MVEIRB environmental assessment officer Louie Azzolini had not returned calls at press time.
