Thread by @stopthespraybc

Not seeing much activity on the Fort Nelson Tenure Transfer, recently covered by @writermjs in @thenarwhalca and by @BenParfittCCPA.

I will attempt a thread to explain the danger in what is happening to public ownership of our forests and will post the link to comment.

1/n

Our forests are for the most part publicly owned. But corporations like Canfor have tenures to them. They never paid for these tenures. The deal was they would build mills and employ people and support communities. This was never legislated, but it was the understanding

2/n

When Canfor acquired the Fort Nelson tenure they shut down two factories that made aspen lumber products, a high quality aspen plywood and aspen OSB. These mills sat idle for the past 13 years.

And despite not providing jobs, we let Canfor sit on this tenure

3/n

Now Canfor wants to sell this tenure and pocket $30 million. They have already sold the plywood factory, which was arguably the public’s (as that was what industry paid in exchange for tenure rights).

But who are they selling it to?

4/n

A pellet company that will not produce lumber products.

This is the first time a tenure has been sold without being connected to a mill, to my knowledge. The responsibility of owning a tenure (providing jobs and lumber products) is no longer connected to the tenure.

5/n

This is a further step towards the privatization of the land base by large corporations. It sets a precedent that can be followed elsewhere. Small communities have already lost local mills when appurtenancy was stripped in 2003. Now milling could be completely detached.

6/n

Tenures could become investments to be held for speculation as opposed to something that provides for communities. This is exactly what Canfor has attempted with the Fort Nelson tenure.

A bad precedent to legitimize by approving the sale.

7/n

Instead the tenure should be taken from Canfor and given to local First Nations outright and the community forest. There is no reason why Canfor should profit by selling to Peak.

Now some thoughts on Peak Renewables, the pellet company:

8/n

This is where it gets juicy.

Peak was founded by Brian Fehr, of BID Group. He has a long standing business relationship with Canfor. He was a contractor for Canfor for decades. This is public knowledge, though the Ministry did not know this when I called them.

9/n

So get this, Canfor thinks they should be allowed to hold a tenure for over a decade without providing jobs, then get to decide who to sell it to: a connected company, a proxy if you will, that won’t be competing with Canfor in the lumber products market!

10/n

So they can profit on the sale, sell it to a non-competing firm, walk away and still have access to the spruce sawlogs which Peak has some kind of deal to ship to Canfor’s mill in Fort St John.

The deal Peak and Canfor have, maybe a non-competition agreement, is secret.

11/n

So now we get into potential violations of the Federal Competition Act. It is illegal if a party “conspires, agrees or arranges” to “allocate sales, territories, customers or markets” with a competitor to “lessen or eliminate the production or supply of the product.” 

12/n

Canfor is selling a tenure to a friendly company, of its choosing (not a competitive sale) the founder of which it has had a decades long relationship, that just so happens to not be producing a competing product out of our resources.

This is antitrust shit.

13/n

Antitrust laws exist to protect the consumer and the public. Canfor is effectively neutralizing competition it may face by selling this to a buddy who runs a pellet company. Has Peak promised not to start cutting lumber? Maybe it’s a handshake. Maybe it’s in writing.

14/n

Nobody has seen the deal, not the Fort Nelson First Nation, not the Fort Nelson Chamber of Commerce, not the government.

But the potential for anticompetitive cooperation happening, to the detriment of the public, is obvious.

15/n

Anyway, I know the Fort Nelson First Nations supports this deal but I want the best for everyone. We lost 600 jobs and we may get 50 back. Peak may have its hands tied preventing it from setting up a sawmill. I think that is likely and all parties should demand to know.

16/n

The economic returns from producing pellets will be a fraction of what it was before or what it could be. Canfor not having competition in the area will allow them to keep lording it over loggers, suppliers and mill workers.

17/n

Canfor should be taken out of the picture and not be allowed to manipulate the situation. They created a decade of unemployment and desperation now they want to leverage that to reduce competition and install their proxy company, Peak Renewables.

18/n

The transfer should not happen. It should be directly given to the Fort Nelson First Nations and the community forest. Canfor should see nothing. They broke their promise to provide jobs.

Comment here, you have 4 hours:

www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/in…

And none of this mentions the head scratcher of mowing down beautiful aspen for biofuel.

The same aspen plywood that Fort Nelson used to produce sells for $60 a sheet at Home Depot. As long as Canfor refused to produce it, yes the value was nothing. They it made it that way.