 In the Northwest: B.C. mining industry wants its pound of flesh
By JOEL CONNELLY, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST
Monday, November 25, 2002
Asked to explain how running British Columbia differs from serving as
governor in "the States," one-time B.C. Premier Dave Barrett replies, "When
the queen calls you, she gives you the whole bag."
Succinct, and true.
Under a parliamentary system, the premier is a kind of elected dictator,
undisputed boss of a disciplined legislative majority and free to dream (and
pursue) big dreams.
Premier Gordon Campbell and his business allies have an expansive dream.
They want to make Vancouver and Whistler hosts to the 2010 Winter Olympics.
The proposal has the enthusiastic support of Canada's Prime Minister Jean
Chretien. Vancouver-Whistler boosters have solicited backing on both sides
of the border, and will submit a bid book to the International Olympic
Committee by Jan. 10.
Curiously, however, the Olympic bid could stumble over one force that acts
as a curb on elected dictators -- public opinion.
Vancouver's new mayor-elect Larry Campbell (no kin to the premier) has
promised a citywide referendum on the 2010 Olympics. Hizzoner-elect supports
the games but says the public ought to be heard.
The prospect evokes near-hysteria among Olympic boosters. They worry that
anyone with a beef against the provincial government would grasp the
referendum to send Victoria a message.
A vote is sure to trigger tough questions about how heavy a subsidy the
province would make to the games at a time budget cutters are closing down
hospitals, clinics and courts around the province.
As well, the provincial Cabinet faces a decision that could trigger
opposition to the Olympic bid both inside and outside of British Columbia.
Pressured by the Mining Association of B.C., the Cabinet is considering
whether to dismantle a recently created provincial park encompassing
forests, meadows and lakes of the South Chilcotin mountains north of
Whistler.
A powerful presence in the Great White North, the mining lobby hates parks.
It remains furious at a B.C. government decision made in the early 1990s.
Nixing a huge open-pit mine proposal, the province preserved the
Tatshenshini River in far northwest British Columbia.
Prospected for 70 years, the South Chilcotin has never yielded any deposit
justifying an economically viable mine. Still, the new South Chilcotin
Mountains Provincial Park is the Mining Association's pound of flesh. It has
laid down the law to Premier Campbell.
Anything larger than a postage stamp-sized park around beautiful Spruce Lake
"will be a clear and powerful message that the government has failed to
grasp the leadership required to attract meaningful mineral exploration and
development investment back to B.C.," the industry has warned in leaked
correspondence.
But Premier Campbell will send a clear and powerful message if he
eviscerates the park: Environmental combat is back in British Columbia.
In a recent Vancouver Sun article, a distinguished conservative politician
and diplomat -- former House of Commons Speaker John Fraser -- warned that
caving in to the mining industry could "act as a lightning rod for intense
global criticism and market actions."
He made clear what would be burned: the province's $10 billion (Canadian)
tourism industry, and the 2010 Olympics bid.
In the early 1990s, clearcutting of coastal rain forests on Vancouver
Island's Clayoquot Sound triggered a summer of logging road sit-ins -- with
900 arrests -- and fueled efforts in Europe and the United States to mount a
boycott of British Columbia wood products.
"The confrontational stance of the Mining Association to de-park South
Chilcotin could lead B.C. back 15 years to a land-use war that no one
needs -- not the mining industry, the tourism industry, the business
community of Whistler or Vancouver, nor Victoria," wrote Fraser.
"If anything could endanger this province's mining industry, and undermine
investor confidence, it's setting off a Clayoquot-style confrontation before
the eyes of the world as B.C. works to stage the Olympics."
Tough words, from the guy who was chairman of B.C.'s Olympic bid committee
for the 1976 games.
Fraser has a point: Does Premier Campbell want save-the-park protests
tailing delegations from the International Olympic Committee? Or television
carrying reports of sit-downs near Whistler as the IOC deliberates? Or the
park made an issue in any referendum on the Olympics?
Even in a province that bills itself "SuperNatural British Columbia," the
South Chilcotin is an unusual, stunning place.
In the rain shadow of the mighty Coast Range -- though by counting the wet
days while backpacking you might never know it -- the region is renowned for
vast wildflower meadows.
Grizzly bears, bighorn sheep and mountain goats roam its wild reaches. So do
guide-outfitters: The area generates $10 million in tourism revenues
annually. (Spruce and Lorna Lakes are a half-hour floatplane flight from
Whistler.)
"World class" is what Fraser calls the park. B.C. Parks once described it as
"the single most outstanding area of wilderness in the southern interior."
Canada's government has coveted the South Chilcotin as a national park.
But its prospects are tenuous.
In an Orwellian move, the B.C. Parks Web site has literally wiped South
Chilcotin Mountains Provincial Park off the map. A logging company has
extended a clearcut to within the park's boundaries.
They can take the park off the map, but they can't put it out of mind.
What kind of protests to expect if Premier Campbell de-parks one of his
province's supreme beauty spots?
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