CKNW Editorial
for August 13, 2001

A couple of thoughts this morning.

The countervailing duty against Canadian softwood lumber, of which 50% comes from British Columbia, exposes some pretty raw nerves.

First of all, it is our basic industry which has taken a lot of hits over the past few years and will have more to take as competition increases from places that have neither our high wage costs nor our concern for the environment.

Second, whether we like it or not we admitted guilt when, in the face of the previous countervail, we agreed to raise our stumpage. I understand that this was done in order to have a quick ending to the matter and at least keep the taxes in Canada but the fact remains it showed American producers that we would knuckle under to threats. It’s sort of like early times when the Saxons paid the Danes not to attack them and the saying became, "once you pay him the Danegeld, you never get rid of the Dane".

Thirdly, unhelpfully, many of the left have been claiming ever since this issue arose back in the mid eighties that the Americans have a point. I don’t say they have – I only say that their greed has been nourished by local critics of the industry.

Fourthly, we cannot underestimate the seriousness of this move. There will be a lot of lost jobs, badly hurt communities and yes, badly hurt shareholders many of whom are those of you who are in pension plans or have mutual funds.

Fifthly, this throws the recent mini budget of Finance Minister Collins into a cocked hat and should have treasury officials pulling their hair out. The government has undertaken the huge, some would say impossible task, of balancing the budget in three years and this import tax raises hell with those prospects.

Sixthly, we will now see just how much this Liberal government in Ottawa cares about British Columbia. Not only will we be watching minister Pierre Pettigrew carefully as he deals with the Americans we will also be watching to see if federal help is available to smaller logging companies who have to post bonds in order to keep logging for export. You can be sure that if the 50% of the exports were coming from Ontario and Quebec such a move would have been already announced.

Lastly, we must be careful how we approach the business of retaliation. Don’t get me wrong – we should and must fight back. But we also have to realize that when you get into a pissing match with an elephant you’re going to lose. For every place we have to fight back, the United States has a couple of their own. We’re dealing here with a not so friendly giant who, since 1989, has been cock-o-the-walk and loves every minute of it. This is not a Nafta problem – it’s a trade problem which pre-dates Nafta by years. Nafta doesn’t protect people from dumping and this, in essence, is what the American Department of Commerce says we’re doing.

What must happen this time is a settlement of the matter not simply a postponement. And as we proceed from here it would be nice to hear from our Liberal MPs – except, of course, they are discipline bound to keep the peace. That being the case we must place our hopes on a Quebec politician who knows that while 50% of the problem may be in British Columbia, that’s not where the votes are.

On another matter – Deb McPherson badly overplayed her hand. The nurses situation must be viewed from two angles. First there is the justice of the matter. Here I think the nurses had it hands down even though, by caving into the NDP a few years ago they to some degree authored their own misfortune.

Second, there’s the way the game was played. It’s helpful to have a just cause in this life but if you don’t make your case well, justice just may not be yours – at least not in the short term. Ms McPherson did a first rate job in getting the wage disparities of this noble profession as practiced in BC and elsewhere out to the public and for most of the strike she had the public with her. She was not so successful at getting the public to understand the non monetary are perhaps I should say associated issues. And this was a tough job because most of us tend to keep score in these matter by looking at the money.

Where she went wrong was with the threatened mass resignations. This was a gamble and a bad one. If you threaten and fail to follow up if your bluff is called, you lose face – badly. And Ms McPherson looks very bad indeed on this one.

She miscalculated. Mostly she misunderstood Premier Campbell who has quickly become a very strong leader indeed. Whether that strength becomes, given his huge mandate, autocratic remains to be seen but for now he is providing the strong leadership this province hasn’t seen since the days of Bill Bennett and so far the public like it. When Ms McPherson flung down the gauntlet of resignations in her hip pocket she simply did not believe that the government would call her bluff. She was very wrong.
I still believe that the government should not have legislated its own offer but sent the matter to arbitration but that’s a dead issue. What is not a dead issue is that with or without Deb McPherson, the nursing profession is, if you will, nursing some real grievances many of which are attitudinal and most of which have existed, largely unattended to, for eons. With the huge shortage of nurses and the pivotal role they play in our healthcare system these grievances must be addressed.

I believe that a small task force should be set up to spend as much time as necessary looking into this situation with a view to finally restoring nursing to the profession it once was where nurses would encourage their, mostly, daughters to make it their career. The atmosphere is poisoned right now but that shouldn’t deter the government from offering an olive branch. If nothing else they must for reasons of self interest work towards making the nursing situation better. As Churchill said, in victory magnanimity. That was excellent advice then and is excellent advice now. The government must be seen to be doing something and a task force would accomplish that.

Over to you Premier Campbell.