Protection of salmon main concern
Mills not vital to Duke Point project
NANAIMO — Deep sea port facilities and an industrial park should be built at Duke Point in Northumberland Channel, says UFAWU small boat vice-president Walter Tickson, but only if log booms and industrial pollutants are kept out of the Nanaimo River estuary.
Furthermore, he argues, development of Duke Point should not depend on whether a number of sawmills are located at nearby Jack Point.
"We do not believe that the port development cannot go ahead without sawmills located on Jack -Point," he wrote in a special supplement on the controversial Duke Point-Jack Point project published by the Nanaimo Times recently.
"The sawmills should locate on lands between the Duke Point site and the Hooker Chemical plant," he said.
"If more space is required, the area between Harmac and Dodd Narrows can be used. In this area the sea life has largely been destroyed by pulp mill effluent. Adding sawmills in that area would not appreciably change the condition of sea life. Barge loads and log booms may be dissembled in Northumberland Channel and either stored in salt water or moved on land, of which there is plenty in the area."
The Nanaimo River estuary is a prime rearing ground for the fry of several species of salmon and its protection is the prime concern of fishermen and environmentalists.
Debate over its future is being fueled by the release three weeks ago of a consultants' report recommending rapid approval of the $110 million Duke Point-Jack Point complex proposed by the B.C. Development Corporation.
The BCDC and Nanimo City Council spokesmen have claimed
* This photo-montage prepared by B.C. Development Corporation shows the proposed new deep sea dock and shipping terminal at Duke Point and sawmill sites on Jack Point, strongly opposed as a threat to salmon runs to the Nanaimo River.
that expansion of the forest industry through the Duke Point complex will create a large number of job opportunities, but Tickson says that mills allowed to store logs on the river estuary could destroy more fishery-related jobs than they would create through their relocation close to Nanaimo.
In any case, the sawmills that would locate at Duke Point or Jack Point — "or anywhere else
for that matter" — will not increase jobs in the province, he claims.
"These mills would either relocate here from places like Cowichan Bay where they are not wanted, or will displace outmoded mills elsewhere and will employ fewer workers per unit of production.
"The timber stands on Vancouver Island are not increasing but are decreasing year by year.
The reduction of log production quotas on Vancouver Island is inevitable. It's only a matter of time.
"There is no way that log production on Vancouver Island can be increased without over-cutting. The cut is too high now for future stability of the communities dependent on logging for economic survival."
Tickson faulted the BCDC and the consulting firm, Beak Hinton
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Consultants of Richmond, for failing to include in their study future log supply, water requirements of the developing fishery on the Nanaimo River and what surpluses are available to industry.
"No consideration was given the possibility that sawmills located at Ladysmith, Chem-ainus and Duncan would produce as many jobs as Nanimo and would be as beneficial to the economy and the people of Vancouver Island as they would if located in Nanaimo," he wrote.
"It makes little if any difference at all where they are located as far as job creation is concerned.
"Not so with fish production. Salmon can only be reared economically in or adjacent to rivers. To destroy a river is to destroy a portion of our renewable resource, a portion of our fish production potential.
"It would destroy a piece of our national wealth that does not belong only to us but to the whole country."
Over the years the Nanaimo River and the lake system which is part of its watershed has lost much of its salmon production "due to the blind drive for profit by the lumber companies and the ignorance of some politicians," in Tickson's view.
"The several hundred million dollar fishery enhancement program will provide funding for a major undertaking including a hatchery," Tickson continued. "This could mean a tremendous increase in fish production in the river and lake system of which the estuary is a part. The accumulation of information on advances made in fish farming indicates that the Nanaimo River estuary can provide ideal conditions for fishing farming."
He promised that fishermen will use the Fisheries Act, strengthened recently by amendments contained in Bill C-38.
The amended act guarantees fishermen the right to sue any person or company for loss of income through destruction of fish or their habitat.
"We intend to sue in the highest court any and all those who infringe on the rivers and their fish production capability, for every job or dollar that may be lost by commercial fishermen as a result of damage done to the ecosystem," Tickson declared.
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