The omission of Clause 7 from the Youbou
transfer documents occurred under the watch of then-NDP Forest Minister
David Zirnhelt, who later said he didn’t realize the clause was
missing when he signed the papers. The B.C. Liberals, in opposition at
the time, told the workers they would put the clause back in when they
got into power, but it didn’t happen.
Today, the Youbou workers are taking the Province to court. Ken James
is the representative plaintiff in a class action suit against the B.C.
government, claiming “the actions of the provincial government were
grossly negligent in allowing the removal of Clause 7 from the new license.”
He’s acting on behalf of all former employees of the Youbou Sawmill.
Besides seeking compensation, the workers want “to see justice done
and the truth served.”
“What we wanted was our jobs back,” James says, “but
the mill is long gone now. But, there are other forms of compensation,
like loss of wages and special damages.” They are currently waiting
for a response from the B.C. government. “The government has 60
days to appeal,” James explains, “but we probably won’t
hear anything until Day 59.”
James is one of five board members of th e Youbou TimberLess Society,
the group coordinating the launch of the class action suit. The 250-member
society was formed in late 2000 by some of the Youbou mill workers. It
hosts social activities like summer picnics and Christmas parties, but
there’s serious stuff, too. The YTS has an extended medical and
dental plan for the former mill workers, and board members speak at rallies
and take part in panel discussions to present proposals that address problems
in the province’s ailing forest industry. Says James: “One
of the biggest things we learned real quick is you need to have a strategy.
Going boo-hoo-hoo wears old real fast. You need to offer solutions.”
The Youbou TimberLess Society isn’t the first group of mill workers
to take the B.C. government to court. The Sierra Legal Defence Fund, representing
Woodworkers for Fair Forest Policy Society, the Pulp and Paper Workers
of Canada, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada,
and the David Suzuki Foundation, filed a petition in B.C.’s Supreme
Court in 2003. In the petition, Premier Gordon Campbell, Forest Minister
Mike de Jong and the B.C. Cabinet were accused of failing to enforce the
Forest 
Act.
In February 2002, an order-in-council was passed by the B.C. Liberal Cabinet
that permitted the raw-log export of 35 per cent of the harvest from the
Kispiox, Kalum and North Coast Forest Districts over three years. Section
127 of the B.C. Forest Act specifically bans the export of raw logs. Section128
gives the Forestry Minister authority to grant exemptions only if the
timber is surplus to the needs of B.C. mills or can’t be processed
economically at local mills.
By issuing special permits through an order-in-council, the decision was
made without debate in the legislature. The Cabinet okayed the export
of up to 325,000 cubic metres of raw logs, the equivalent of about 8,000
logging-truck loads. As each permit allowed only 15,000 cubic metres,
the government had to issue 22 exemption permits.
In 1998, the Eburne Sawmill in Vancouver, owned by Canfor (Canadian Forest
Products), was closed. At the time, workers were told it was due to a
shortage of timber. This mill was the last of six mills that once operated
under Canfor’s Tree Farm Licence 37. Without mills to process the
timber, the timber virtually all became surplus, which cleared the way
for expanded raw-log exports.
When the mill closed, the angry workers set up blockades outside the mill,
demanding that the government cancel Canfor’s licence. They called
it “a betrayal of public trust” by the company for failing
to operate even one mill to process the wood it harvested on Crown land.
The Woodworkers for Fair Forest Policy Society sprung from these protests
and is composed of former Eburne mill workers who maintain Canfor “has
reneged on its social contract.”
Critics say the amount of raw logs exported through the order-in-council
could have kept the Eburne mill running full out for one year. Tim Howard,
a lawyer for the Sierra Legal Defence Fund, remarked at the time: “Mills
are closing across the province due to a lack of timber at the same time
as the government permits raw-log exports at unprecedented levels.”
In May of this year, the legal proceedings launched by the organizations
came to a halt when the B.C. Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit, ruling
the B.C. Cabinet has “complete, unfettered and subjective discretion
to make decisions.”
“We didn’t like the ruling,” says Jim King, the PPWC’s
first vice-president. “Basically, the judge made the ruling that
they [the provincial government] have unfettered rights to do whatever
the government wants to do, no matter what the law is.”
In March 2003, as part of its “Forest Revitalization Plan,”
the B.C. Liberals brought in further changes to the Forest Act under Bills
28 and 29. According to a statement issued by IWA Canada Local 2171 (Industrial,
Wood and Allied Workers), “These two pieces of legislation really
put the boots to IWA members, their families and their communities.”
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