by Elmer Derrick
Globe and Mail
January 25, 2008
Canada's forestry-dependent communities need to be revitalized. Crippled by a seemingly interminable down cycle of the forest economy, they are in need of a fresh approach to break out of this morass, and the idea to privatize Crown forests is worthy of exploration.
Over the years, various investors have tried to breathe life back into a sick pulp and lumber company in B.C.'s northwest. Some plans nearly succeeded but, ultimately, all were failures. Left behind was the carcass of Skeena Cellulose Inc., its few remaining assets auctioned off to the highest bidders.
The investors could do only so much, given the confinement in which the companywas forced to operate. Uncertainty of forest ownership, fibre costs and security of access were all leading contributors to the failure of SCI. With a lack of stability in the operating environment, investors were unable to secure the financing necessary to allow aggressive restructuring. This experience has been repeated elsewhere in British Columbia and Canada.
Businesses – which rural communities depend on – haven't been able to afford to reinvest and modernize operations. These companies, and their decaying assets, are starved of capital to the point that they can't succeed in the face of growing global competition.
The problem isn't the strong Canadian dollar. The problem is that we make it near to impossible for new investment to come to our communities. This has everything to do with government policy and regulation at the federal, provincial and municipal levels. It cuts across the areas of taxation, regulatory burdens and ambiguity in ownership.
For its part, the Gitxsan First Nation wants and desperately needs economic activity. Time and again, investors have told us that the uncertainty over the ownership of the land is a major and fundamental disincentive to the flow of capital into our communities. In the meantime, our kids are dying. Facing a future with little to no foreseeable economic activity – along with an unemployment rate that is more than 90 per cent – the suicide rate for Gitxsan youth has reached epidemic proportions. While the media has helped gather the
attention of government agencies, the problem continues to grow. Revitalizing our economy is an issue that has become life or death.
All Canadians have a vested interest in reversing the tide. We see an opportunity in the privatization of Crown lands to create a viable commercial forestry. Worldwide, most land used for commercial activity is held in private hands, not public. In these places – South America, the U.S., Europe and Russia – private ownership has fuelled massive investment in resource sectors. Today,despite our skill, experience and abundant resources, tens of billions of dollars of investments are going elsewhere. They should be coming to Canada.
We are certainly all too aware that the status quo hasn't worked. And we are prepared to get creative and work with governments on a fair and reasonable basis so that first nations get a fair piece of the economic opportunity pie. Clarity on land ownership will help us get there. It is precisely what's needed to kick-start investment flows and economic activity.
The Gitxsan are eager to get on with it. We are eager to have the means and tools necessary to become a constructive partner with the private sector. We want to train and employ our people, have a direct financial stake in success, and assume the risk that goes with it. We want to become full-fledged economic participants, not be handcuffed to arcane, centuries-old legislation that isolates and marginalizes us. The Gitxsan want to seek practical, workable and sensible solutions. We are keen to get down to the business of building an economy. Yet there are fundamental institutional and structural problems that must be dealt with. These sometimes appear too onerous for anyone to want to deal with. They sometimes appear intractable. So political leadership has thrown up its hands and the monkey has been thrown to the courts. Consistently, they have established the basis for our property rights. But at its core, this is a public policy and political challenge, not a legal one.
The only people that have feasted on this process are lawyers and consultants. Our kids certainly haven't. First nations have felt they have had no choice but to go to the courts because the politicians sometimes do not even acknowledge that we exist. The courts at least acknowledge our representations.
These problems won't get magically resolved with government largesse. The Gitxsan don't want to be beggars, and this is not a problem that can be solved merely by throwing money at it. We don't want to be a burden on the Crown; at the same time we don't want to be burdened by the Crown. Gitxsan and other aboriginal people need to get off the dependency cycle. Two generations of Gitxsan have not worked and have to learn how to sweat again. We are capable of creating new economies and enabling our people to look after ourselves. It will
take time, but we can do it.
There are three distinct economies in Canada. The urban economies are doing well. Communities in the rural heartland are hurting and are in rapid decline. And the reserves, home to a majority of Canada's one million aboriginal people, are drowning in poverty and despair. That must not be allowed to continue. Bold thinking and leadership are urgently required. We need to shift the discussion from our traditional and seemingly inflexible poles, and meet somewhere in the middle in order to align our interests and foster economic growth and social progress.
We understand the need to create an attractive environment that attracts, not repels, investment. It's the only way to stem the widening gap between Canada's urban economies and Canada's dying heartland economies. A good start would be a frank discussion about how to free a large group of Canadians from economic isolation, poverty and social despair. Without free economic access to our land, we don't have the tools to build a new generation of entrepreneurs, attract investment, and develop our economy. It's time for all of us to recalibrate. It's time for us to sit down and figure out what we need to do to save our
communities and save our kids.
Elmer Derrick is a First Nations Hereditary Chief of Gitsegukla, one of seven communities of the Gitxsan Nation, and is chief negotiator for the Gitxsan Treaty Society. He is also a director of BC Hydro and Powerex Corp. He can be reached at yoobx@gitxsan.com
