Kits Beach fence, originally uploaded by Michael Sun.

taken while i was on a a photo walk to kits beach in vancouver canada

Their crime,being poor,and daring to walk the public streets & spaces

Security guards in Vancouver are discriminating against the city’s homeless by telling people sitting or sleeping on benches to move along, to stop binning in alleys, and by following and intimidating them.

In response to the tactics of the so called "Goodwill Ambassadors",an initiative of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA).

The good people of Pivot legal society & United Native Nations have filed a complaint with the BC human Rights Tribunal.

Laura Track, a lawyer with Pivot, said the Downtown Ambassadors program, which is run by Genesis Security and the DVBIA, under the guidance of commissioner Geoff Plant, singles out street people and impedes their legal access to public areas.

The downtown core and in particular the DTES & Granville street happens to be home to nearly all Vancouver's 6-7000 SOR's(single occupancy rooms).Therefore if one is unemployed,disabled,living on welfare,trying to survive on minimum wage etc the chances of one  ending up in the DTES are quite good.

Imagine leaving your room to walk the street or to just sit ,along comes some junior g-man in a dorky red outfit telling you to move on,like you're some kind of dog.Or worse...

the guards follow and stare at people they find "undesirable" and take photographs and notes for unknown purposes.

Not because you have done anything wrong but because you are poor .Also if you happen to be native you are even more likely to be harassed

To add insult to injury...

The monies being used to fund,what is in affect a  private business program aimed at forcing the poor from Vancouver's public spaces & streets,are public funds.

Non-Partisan Association councillors “ignored council process and staff recommendations” to force public funding for a private business program through Vancouver City Council, a Vision Vancouver media release has alleged.

Read more here , here, and here

Also be sure to check out 'Incivilty City' over at Creative Revolution.

I spent some time noodling around on the Provincial Parks website, looking for a place that would be easy to get to on a bike, yet remote enough that I could enjoy it in relative solitude. As in, few chances of running into carfuls of rowdy stabbers and their hoochies breaching the peace on the beach.

I found my destination at Car-Free BC, a website/book that provides all the info you could possibly need about destinations and activities in Southwestern BC that can be reached by self-propelled or public transportation. Listed under both bicycle touring and weekend getaways, Gabriola Island sounded perfect. I had been scuba diving there years ago, although had never set foot on the island itself. It would be a new place, yet small enough to be manageable for my first cycle tour. Plus, the campground is less than a kilometre away from the ferry terminal, so I wouldn't have to go far with my load.

To get there, you need to take two ferries - one from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo, and a second from Nanaimo to Gabriola. Bike transportation currently adds a mere $2 on the Nanaimo-Horseshoe Bay run, and costs nothing extra for Gabriola. Plus, ferry fares are return to Gabriola, meaning that if you spend all your cash, you're not stranded there - though I could think of worse fates.

The two ferry terminals in Nanaimo are separated by a nice little seaside path. However, the path is clogged by the most dazed, meandering senior citizens and tourists I've ever seen. Sideswiping one of these wanderers with my hobo-style load was tempting.

My sister lent me a small tent, and advised me to make my stuff look a little "junky" to make it less of a target. So I strapped on a garbage bag over the load with bungee cords. It flapped in the wind nicely. But perhaps I need not have worried. There's an unwritten code about travellers messing with one another's bikes, and campsites too. On the ferries and on Gabriola, with nary a bike rack in sight (maybe one at the grocery store), I pretty much always left the bike, bags, and accessories unlocked, without incident.

Once I arrived, the really nice thing I found about solo camping was the ability to go at my own pace. I had a borrowed tent with no instructions on how to put it up, but I just went about it, figuring it out from past experience. The campsite was at the wonderful Descanso Bay Regional Park, which has a lovely bay for swimming (at high tide, in the afternoon) and beachcombing (at low tide, in the morning).

By wandering around on my own, I quickly scouted out a great spot for swimming, just on the side of the bay. It has sandstone shelves that you can just jump out from into the deep, cool ocean. (I only wished I had brought my snorkel and mask with me, the better to see all the varieties of seaweed, starfish, and fish.)

Gabriola was under a fire ban, meaning no campfires. I gambled on being able to roast weiners, and so did not bring my portable camp stove and propane. No matter - I could live on wine and cheese, and a couple of bakeries/cafes were not too far along the road for my morning caffeine needs. From my campsite, the cafe near Twin Beaches was the best, the other place being at the top of a wicked hill.

The first day, I had a lovely lazy beach day. The sun was out, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and you can walk along the shore for miles over amazing sandstone formations and check out all the little tidepools.

I checked out the Malaspina Galleries and then walked up to Gabriola Sands Park (locally known as Twin Beaches), where I spread out my stuff, and just laid in the sun, reading and eating. Perfect.

The only drawback was that the tide was way out, so to go swimming, I would have to walk over plenty of mud and shells and rocks. I did eventually switch beaches when some idiot's cell phone kept making the low battery sound (hey! you! turn it off!) and found the tide was in much further on the other side. But it was super-shallow, not much good for swimming. I waded carefully to not to step on the little scurrying crabs (my astrological sign, y'know). However, when I got back to the campground, conditions were just right for a swim.

Later that evening, I was sitting around at my picnic table, drinking wine, reading, and wondering what to do with myself until sundown. A girl happened by, another solo female camper as it turned out, and asked if I wanted to go hitchhike with her to the Surf Pub, have some drinks, and watch the sunset. A tremor of anxiety shot through me, but I said sure. We walked out to the road, stuck our thumbs out, and before long had a ride with a couple of Islanders, older guys we'd seen at the beach earlier. Turns out she'd had almost my exact same itinerary that day. Huh.

Her plans were much more ambitious than mine, as far as camping went. While I was just off on my own for a few days to get away from the pressures of home and just reflect, she was planning to be nomadic for summer, camping and going to festivals, before taking a TESL course and then travelling for a few years. As we sat and talked and nursed our drinks on the Surf Pub patio, I sincerely hoped that I wasn't boring this girl to regret, or getting on her nerves with my barely concealable anxiety about drinking too much, getting a hangover, or not getting a ride back.

The sun went down, the locals continued to gather, the band started up, and a weird guy who reminded me of my uncle asked to sit at our table. My new friend ordered us some margaritas. Oh, she was bad. But she seemed to tolerate me, so I tried to loosen up.

That's one thing about travel... you have to relinquish a little control and squelch your fears. At the very least, I felt I could trust her "go where the wind blows" attitude and openness to find us a ride home (and she did). She had a wonderful energy - at one point she was talking to an older guy who was visiting from Calgary, and asking why wouldn't he give up the rat race there to come to Gabriola full time and do what he enjoys? And just for a second, you could see him really thinking about that, imagining it.

She included us both as members of the solo female camper club, even though our ways and outlooks seem radically different. But thanks to her inspiration, I made this short trip more just a lazy beach holiday and really challenged myself.

To be continued...

Green activists say ‘it’s the logging, stupid,’ but in fact one of the key problems found in a decade of intensive study is that the owls haven’t chosen to occupy some of the protected areas. One reason is barred owls pushing them out. And it’s not often mentioned that B.C. is actually the extreme northern fringe of continent-long natural range for spotted owls.

Shifting protected areas is one delicate issue ahead; “managing” barred owls is another. That will be criticized by the same activists who give this species disproportionate attention.

Mountain caribou are probably B.C.’s most intensively studied animals, and here at least we have most of the world population.

Key areas were protected in 2007 after the population fell below 2,000 and two small herds disappeared, but land clearing has shifted the whole predator-prey balance, and B.C. is now resorting to “managing” cougars and wolves and relocating herds to maintain viable breeding populations.

There is plenty of good news in the 300-page report, entitled Taking Nature’s Pulse: the Status of Biodiversity in British Columbia.

Overall the pulse is strong, starting with the observation that human activity impacts a relatively tiny portion of the province’s vast land area. About nine per cent of B.C.’s total land area has been logged since the 1970s, although almost all the coastal Douglas fir zone had already been harvested before then.

Glacial refugia created a rich variation in freshwater fish, including exotics like the Salish sucker and the Nooksack dace, nurtured in the Chehalis zone after swimming up from Puget Sound.

On the downside, about 66,000 stream crossings were built in B.C. between 2000 and 2005, and research suggests many of those created culvert drop-offs that are impassable barriers for fish.

Alien species are another growing problem, from purple loosestrife to European starlings unleashed by early Shakespeare buffs. Sitka blacktail deer were introduced to Haida Gwaii in the late 1800s and overran the place. The report notes that they have “dramatically altered the ecology of entire rainforest systems, with deleterious impacts on many species.”

The worst threat to B.C.’s biodiversity, the report says, is climate change. Tracking data from 1971 onward, it projects major warming effects by 2050. This informs the provincial government’s strategy to sort at-risk species in a kind of triage, selecting those that need direct intervention from those less urgent. If warming takes place as expected, the shifts in forest type, wetland and elevation zones may make biologists long for the days of arguing over clearcut logging.

It may seem contradictory that while undertaking one of the biggest efforts anywhere to study and protect the environment, the B.C. government is also advertising for more people to visit parks and get out fishing. Yet this might be more important to biodiversity than difficult-to-enforce endangered species laws.

In this vast place of personal freedom, imposing some sort of green martial law may be impossible as well as unwise.

Only individual pride in our environment can ensure lasting protection.

Individual action works

The Land Conservancy just gave 65 hectares of older second-growth Douglas fir forest to the Capital Regional District, expanding Mount Work regional park.

Both Coastal and Interior Douglas fir biogeoclimatic zones are top priorities for retention and recovery, along with the Ponderosa pine and bunchgrass zones. Together the four zones account for only five per cent of B.C.’s total area, but a much larger share of its logging and ranching history.

Hand-wringing continues over the conversion of private forest land to development, the impact of which would be far less than industrial forestry.

Accepting that private property laws are part of the solution, not the problem, the Land Conservancy is doing targeted, lasting work.

If I ever get my climate action dividend cheque, I’m sending it to them.

"In our view, in making his report, the auditor-general went beyond the central issue of the decision process," Hert wrote in an open letter to company staff released Friday. "This memo is to speak to some of those issues."

He went on to provide half a dozen examples of what he regarded as "incomplete and inaccurate statements" and "inappropriate opinions."

Heading the list was the auditor-general's allusion to possible insider stock trading in the days before the government approving the removal of 28,000 hectares of WFP-owned land from provincially managed tree farms.

Doyle said the evidence of "unusual stock trading" was passed on to the B.C. Securities Commission, which is "undertaking an initial review."

He did not record that the commission had already closed the file on the matter back in May, having found insufficient evidence to warrant a full investigation.

Hert: "By leaving this issue open, rather than closing it with facts known at the time of the report, the report can lead people to suspect that people from Western were involved in insider trading."

The forests ministry had voiced a similar concern earlier in the week: "The auditor-general raised the issue that anyone inside the ministry who had advance knowledge of the minister's decision would have been in a position to profit personally from that information by purchasing WFP shares.

"Such allegations cast a pall over the entire ministry and the more than 3,500 dedicated public servants who work here."

Returning to Hert's letter, he offered the company explanation for the suspicious stock trading.

"To be best of our understanding, the large trade that occurred was between outside institutional investors in their normal course of business."

Hert also supplied the company perspective on another matter left unresolved by the auditor-general -- the possibility of a conflict of interest involving forests minister Rich Coleman.

Doyle referred that concern to the conflict of interest commissioner, after learning that Coleman's brother Stan was a senior manager at Western Forest Products.

Hert: "The process for the withdrawal of the private lands began in late 2004. Stan joined Western in May of 2006 [and] had no involvement whatsoever in the file regarding the withdrawal of the private forest lands."

Western also took issue with the auditor-general's complaint about its shares being mostly held by investors from outside B.C.

This, according to Doyle, "raises legitimate questions" about how the benefits of the land-use decision can "flow to British Columbia."

Hert's response was to draw attention to B.C.'s need for more investment in the resource sector, from whatever source.

"The fact that at this point more people outside the province believe in the company's potential than those inside the province should not be a factor," he wrote.

"B.C. still needs outside investment in the forest industry and we should not be sending a signal that those from outside the province will be treated differently than those within."

I've quoted Hert at some length to illustrate that it is possible to debate the auditor-general without joining Forests Minister Pat Bell in questioning his competence, integrity and professionalism.

I would also underscore that, in taking on the auditor-general, Western produced no evidence to challenge his most important findings from a public policy point of view.

Those being that Coleman and the Liberals made the decision to remove those lands from the provincial forest base without proper consultation, thorough analysis or due consideration of the public interest.

Mind, it may just be that those matters no longer concern Western, the company having gotten what it wanted from the Liberals.

"The auditor-general does not have the authority to reverse the decision" wrote Hert, "nor does he recommend that the decision be reversed."

Case closed, as far as the company is concerned. But far from the end of the story in the political realm.

- - -

The auditor-general's full report on this running land-use controversy is posted on his website, at www.bcauditor.com.

Doyle declared it a done deal from the outset with no proper analysis or consultation.

"What informs ministerial decisions?" he asked.

One could be forgiven for believing the guiding principle of the regime in Victoria has become that government knows best and it will entertain no meddling by its constituents in the decision-making process.

The forest land deal is only one example of autocratic excess.

In a heavy-handed decree this year, the government slapped a moratorium on uranium mining without any consultation with industry players. It outlawed development of known deposits and imposed a "no-registration reserve" to ensure no future claims could include rights to the mineral.

Only after the ban went into effect did government officials bother to call mining companies with uranium claims to tell them they had just been put out of business.

In another egregious episode of a failure to consult, Premier Gordon Campbell's climate action plan, which will have such a dramatic impact on the life of every British Columbian, was implemented largely on the strength of his holiday reading of Al Gore's 1992 book, Earth in the Balance.

The target of a 33-per-cent reduction of greenhouse gases by 2020 is not based on any science or cost-benefit analysis. It is a number pulled out of thin air.

Rather than invite comment on policy proposals, the government sometimes resorts to trickery.

For instance, it tried to ram through a provision in an omnibus bill that would have limited its obligation to pay compensation when it cancelled mining claims, timber cutting rights and other tenures on public land. The offending measure was introduced on the final day for tabling legislation of the last session without notice or consultation. The provision was pulled after a public outcry.

In one of the worst examples of back-room dealing, the provincial government handed over a large tract of Pacific Spirit Park and the University of B.C. Golf Course to the Musqueam First Nation.

There was no public consultation, few details of the terms of the transaction were released and no information was provided on who might be developing the lands or how much the lands were worth.

Admittedly, the government is consulting on some issues, including health care and forestry, for example. And lately -- after setting economically costly and near-impossible targets for greenhouse gas reductions -- the Liberals have started consulting with the business community.

Today, like his grandfather and father before him, Mr. Bendickson makes his living from the woods, running two companies that work on Vancouver Island and the mainland's central coast.

His son works with him, and Mr. Bendickson likes to think future generations of his family might also find their calling in the woods.

"I believe there is a future - but it's obviously changing," says Mr. Bendickson, whose Benwest and Stafford Lake logging companies harvest timber for customers that include publicly traded forestry firms and Indian bands.

Mr. Bendickson is one of a vanishing breed of those who make their living by cutting, hauling or processing trees on Vancouver Island. Up and down the island, mills, equipment suppliers and contractors are dropping like flies, felled by the worst market conditions in decades. Woes include a sickly U.S. housing market, export tariffs under the Softwood Lumber Agreement with the United States and the strong Canadian dollar.

In June, Mr. Bendickson took another blow when Duncan-based Western Forest Products Inc., which has already announced a string of cutbacks, announced more shutdowns that will hit 650 Western employees and 1,200 contractors - including 35 people in one of Mr. Bendickson's crews.

Once that crew's contract wraps up, Mr. Bendickson expects some workers may follow others who commute from British Columbia's Comox Valley to jobs in Alberta's oil patch.

The changes reflect more than a temporary lag in demand for two-by-fours. Demographic and real-estate trends on the island have resulted in forest companies assessing their properties to see if some can be put to "higher and best use." Sites once considered valuable only for timber are being eyed for golf courses and condominiums, as well as airports, hospitals and industrial parks.

Take Campbell River, where Mr. Bendickson's operations are based. The city wears its resource history on its sleeve, greeting visitors with the telltale billow of a smokestack in the sky and the smell of wood pulp in the breeze.

That history may be headed for the shelf. In May, Vancouver-based TimberWest Forest Corp. closed its Elk Falls sawmill in Campbell River, adding another 260 people to the roster of thousands in B.C. who have lost forestry jobs in recent years.

This month, Richmond-based Catalyst Paper Corp. announced it would close its Elk Falls pulp mill, throwing another 440 people out of work.

Meanwhile, new homes with ocean views are springing up on property formerly owned by TimberWest. The company is talking to city officials about other parcels that might prove suitable for development.

TimberWest says forestry will remain the primary use for up to 80 per cent of its holdings. Still, the company's strategy speaks to a reshaping of island resources that may be as significant as the pell-mell harvesting of a hundred years ago.

"The strip of the island right from Campbell River to Victoria has become a bit of a haven for retirees from right across the country," Mr. Bendickson says.

"People who are retired don't really want to see the smokestacks. It's 'I'm retired now. I want the golf courses, I want the clean water to go fishing in.' ... All of a sudden you get a very different direction for the town."

LAND RUSH

That direction appears to be moving away from a model that saw lumberjacks head into the woods and mills and towns spring up behind them.

Largely as a result of railway land grants dating back to the early 1900s, TimberWest holds big chunks of property on the Island - about 11 per cent by land mass.

Other forestry companies are also major landowners on the island, where about 20 per cent of the land base is in private hands, compared with about 5 per cent in the rest of the province.

Much of that land is in scenic areas close to metropolitan centres. Ninety-four per cent of the population on Vancouver Island - where real-estate prices have soared by 144 per cent since 2001 - lives within 20 minutes of TimberWest "development nodes," says a June report by Dundee Securities Corp.

As would-be purchasers eye a piece of paradise, some neighbours are getting testy. On the western side of the island, there's an uproar over Western Forest's plans to sell chunks of land between Sooke and Jordan River to a developer. In response to public outcry, B.C. Auditor-General John Doyle investigated a 2007 provincial government decision that gave Western permission to remove the properties from provincially regulated Tree Farm Licences and put it up for sale.

His report earlier this week damned former forests minister Rich Coleman's failure to consult with the public and local government, and described the minister's analysis of the potential impacts as flimsy. "I would have expected to see the documentation that supported the decision to be beyond reproach," Mr. Doyle said. "We found it inadequate." Pat Bell, the new Forests Minister, rejected the findings and Mr. Doyle's methodology. He said "there are no recommendations in here that we can take forward and take as constructive criticism."

In a sign of the times, the Western Canada Wilderness Committee - which has campaigned to keep loggers out of old-growth forests in Clayoquot Sound, the Stein Valley and elsewhere in B.C. - in June teamed up with the United Steelworkers to call for a Forest Land Reserve that would protect forest lands from urban sprawl. (United Steelworkers represents about 7,000 B.C. coast forest workers.) "The environmentalists have now understood that maybe it's better to have a working forest than to have a working subdivision," says Dave Lewis, executive director of the Truck Loggers Association, which represents contract operators such as Mr. Bendickson and has seen many of its members fold this year.

"We used to say it was 'cut and run,' " says Vicky Husband, a long-time environmental activist who is involved in the campaign to have the province block the Western Forest land sales. "Now we say it's 'log and flog.' " Ms. Husband and other activists have asked for meetings with Mr. Bell and Community Development Minister Blair Lekstrom, both appointed in a June cabinet shuffle, in the hopes of blocking the transaction.

Western Forest, for its part, has closed a conditional sale of the contentious properties, which were subdivided into 319 lots (averaging about five hectares each) before the Capital Regional District down-zoned the area to restrict small parcels. Western Forest contacted the CRD before putting the land up for sale, but the district expressed no interest in purchasing the sites, says Western Forest spokesman Duncan Kerr.

Such property won't come cheap. Last year, TimberWest sold nearly 10,000 hectares of land comprising the Leech Watershed to the Capital Regional District. The land will bolster the Sea to Sea Green Blue Belt, a planned wilderness corridor running from Saanich Basin on the eastern Island to Sooke Basin in the southwest.

The price? Some $64.7-million.

FORESTS AT WORK

In Campbell River, union headquarters on a rainy Monday is deserted. Flyers tacked to bulletin boards advertise jobs in Alberta.

Duane Riddoch won't be moving, but he is getting out of the business. Now 40, he started working at TimberWest's Elk Falls sawmill in his 20s.

The number of employees at the mill dwindled over the years and, in May, TimberWest dropped the axe, announcing the mill's permanent closing.

After 13 years during which he worked at nearly every production job at the mill and developed the back problems to prove it, Mr. Riddoch is studying to become an accountant. He doesn't have much hope that jobs like his will return.

"The rationalization hasn't ended," says Mr. Riddoch, who was involved in an unsuccessful employee effort to buy the mill.

"And with none of the forest companies willing to sit down and work together, there is not a hope of sawmilling in B.C. in the short term to survive."

In Campbell River, Don Bendickson hopes he can tough out a grim cycle. Demand could pick up once the U.S. housing market bottoms out and after a pine-beetle-fuelled harvesting boom in the B.C. Interior runs its course. A new marketing campaign is pitching wood as a climate-friendly building material.

Like Ms. Husband, he sees the island at a crossroads. Companies such as his are struggling, local governments are grappling with dwindling commercial tax bases and parts of the island are under unprecedented development pressure.

Royal commissions and other studies have long said the coast needed fewer, bigger manufacturing facilities and vastly reduced numbers of workers to survive, Mr. Bendickson says.

"That's what's going to happen," he says, "but a lot of people aren't prepared to accept the price of getting there."

An industry in crisis

The B.C. forestry industry is suffering through what many believe are the worst financial times of its existence. Mills are closed, companies are bankrupt, workers are laid off and fleeing to other trades.

Net earnings for B.C. coastal forestry companies, in millions of dollars
1990 -9
1991 -869
1992 -262
1993 520
1994 1,360
1995 1,280
1996 -290
1997 -132
1998 -1.057
1999 923
2000 NA
2001 -90
2002 -44
2003* -95
2004 -47
2005 -125
2006 -164

*As of May, 2003

CARRIE COCKBURN/ THE GLOBE AND MAIL; SOURCE: COAST FOREST PRODUCTS ASSOCIATION

It will take decades to restore the watershed to the point that it can provide clean drinking water, estimates Jack Hull, the CRD's general manager for water services.

"We are taking a long-term view," he said yesterday. "We could be looking at 30 or more years."

With growing development pressures on the island, similar conflicts over private timberlands were highlighted this week when Auditor-General John Doyle assailed the former forests minister for a decision on the forestry land base just west of the Leech River watershed.

Mr. Doyle said the province didn't act in the public interest when it removed about 28,000 hectares of Western Forest Products' private timberlands from Forest Ministry regulation, paving the way for real-estate development - or the kind of logging that has marked the Leech River watershed.

Until last year's land-use decision, the Western Forest Products lands were subject to tree farm licence (TFL) regulations that required higher standards for logging. The company has since provisionally sold a portion of the properties around Jordan River to a real-estate developer.

The deal, worth an estimated $150-million to the forest company, has generated anger in communities in the region along the west coast of Vancouver Island. Environmentalists and unionized forest workers have banded together to oppose the sell-off of the timberlands.

Mr. Doyle concluded the government should have looked at what happens to private lands when they are lifted from the TFL restrictions before altering the status of the lands. The province received no compensation for the change.

Historically, forest companies in B.C. agreed to put private forestry lands under provincial control in exchange for access to timber on public land.

"There wasn't a sufficient review of past decisions, they fell between the cracks," Mr. Doyle said in an interview.

But Ben Parfitt, a resource policy analyst for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said the information was there in the government's own database, had the Forests Ministry chosen to consider the potential impact.

In a study released this week, Mr. Parfitt found that logging rates increased dramatically once land was taken out of TFL controls. Companies pay less in taxes and royalties on strictly private lands, and are subject to fewer restrictions to sell raw logs for export.

(Virtually all of the private TFL lands have been wiped out since 1999. There are just a few pockets left on Vancouver Island and in the Kootenays, a total of about 17,000 hectares.) "I think the Leech River watershed is a good example of where the public interest is impacted negatively by logging rates and methods on private lands," Mr. Parfitt said.

His report calls for reforms of private forest land regulations to ensure sustainable harvests. "If we had proper rules in place we wouldn't be out of pocket for the Leech watershed."

Conflicts over logging on private forestry lands are particularly acute on Vancouver Island because a high ratio of the island is in private hands. On the mainland, about 95 per cent of the province is publicly owned. On Vancouver Island, nearly a quarter of the land is in private hands.

With environmental and development pressures rubbing up against logging activities, most of the big private timberland owners are moving into the real estate business.

"Vancouver Island is changing at a rapid rate with respect to population growth," noted Steve Lorimer, TimberWest's manager of public affairs. "There is pressure to find land for areas to live, to recreate and maintain a good water supply." It's a formula that makes it harder to log, but more lucrative to build.

Nearly a fifth of TimberWest's 322,000 hectares of private lands on Vancouver Island have been earmarked for development. As a sign of the times, TimberWest hired its first vice-president of real estate last year

They can argue, with justification, that government can do nothing about the global economy that drives the industry. But that doesn't mean corporate interests should get priority over those of Vancouver Islanders, as happened with the Western Forest Products decision and others that resulted in raw logs and jobs racing each other to the U.S. and China.

It raises a question to which I don't know the answer: How many jobs does Vancouver Island have to lose before it's just not worth cutting down the forest anymore?

The justification for logging is that it provides employment, lots of it. It has been B.C.'s traditional trade-off: We lose our best forests but get food on the table, money in the till, plenty of taxes for roads and school and hospitals and all the other advantages of an industrial society that we take as our birthright.

Except now many of those jobs have disappeared, and we're still chopping down trees like crazy, current doldrums notwithstanding. A report by forest researcher Ben Parfitt says the pace of private-land logging on southern Vancouver Island increased 22 per cent between 2003 and 2007.

The provincial government used to demand that timber be milled in the area in which it was logged, ensuring jobs went with the wood. It was the New Democrats who killed that policy when they allowed TimberWest to abandon its Youbou sawmill in 2001, which employed 225 people. Over time, integrated companies that used to cut down trees, mill them into lumber and make pulp and paper, were broken up.

The B.C. coast lost 40 per cent of its sawmilling jobs in the 1990s. Vancouver Island alone has lost several big operations since 2001. The Tahsis sawmill was finally declared dead that year. Doman's Chemainus plant closed in 2002. The Field mill in Courtenay was dismantled a couple of years ago. Nanaimo's Island Phoenix disappeared in 2006. TimberWest closed its Campbell River sawmill this May, with the loss of 257 jobs.

In fact, just seven decent-sized sawmills remain on all of Vancouver Island, most running at less than capacity.

Without the sawmills, there's no sawdust and residual wood waste for the pulp and paper industry. The lack of sawdust doomed Catalyst's Elk Falls pulp operation in Campbell River, which will close in November at a loss of 440 jobs; a similar number work on Elk Falls' paper machines, though only two of three are running.

Another 82 jobs, close to 10 per cent of the workforce, were cut this year at Catalyst's Crofton pulp and paper mill. The company's Port Alberni operation, which way back in yellow-brick-road times employed 1,500, is down to 340 workers turning out the paper that goes into Rolling Stone magazine.

Nanaimo's Harmac pulp mill shut down in May, taking 500 jobs with it. It's been a decade since the Gold River pulp mill went under, at a loss of 380 positions. On the north Island, that leaves Neucel's Port Alice back-from-the-dead cellulose mill, employing close to 400.

That's all we have left: seven sawmills, a pulp and paper industry slowly dying of starvation and a land base being logged off at an unsustainable rate, with the timber destined for export and much of the land turned over for real-estate development -- working forest lost forever.

It would be nice to listen to the Liberals explain how this is in the public interest, or at least in the interest of that portion of the public that does not hold shares in certain logging companies. Alas, all we've heard is self-serving political bluster.

Hert said in an interview that he has to clear up inaccuracies with employees because some are concerned about the reputation of the company.

"There are things we need to clarify for our employees. We just want to set the record straight," said Hert, who has also sent a letter to the auditor general's office.

Hert said he has no problem with Doyle's comments on the process followed by former forests minister Rich Coleman when he made the controversial decision to allow the removal of the private lands.

Doyle concluded the decision was made without adequate information or consultation and there was not sufficient regard for the public interest.

"All that's fine -- that's his role. He can make recommendations to government and look for improvement," Hert said.

Problems arise with the report's sidebars, he said. A diagram showing WFP ownership and corporate linkages gives the source as the Forests Ministry, but Hert said it is wrong.

"Western does not have a partnership relationship with Oji Paper Canada Ltd., nor do we have a partnership with Canfor Corp.," he said.

"Tricap Management Ltd. is not composed of 100 per cent Brookfield Corp. Brookfield is a significant investor in Tricap, while other investors make up the remainder."

It is also questionable why the corporate structure was thought to be relevant, Hert said.

The same goes for the sidebar on Western's donations of $60,470 to the B.C. Liberals between 2005 and 2007, he said.

"Western's donations are in no manner unusual. Individuals and corporations are allowed to make political contributions and we follow all legal requirements regarding donations. The auditor general should have clarified why this side box was part of the report," Hert said in the letter.

It is unacceptable that Doyle left the question of unusual stock trading open, even though the B.C. Securities Commission had closed the file before the report was completed, Hert said.

It leaves a cloud over WFP employees and there should be clarification from Doyle, he said.

A spokeswoman from the auditor general's office said the letter from Hert has been received, but there has not yet been time to consider it.

As Doyle prepared the hard-hitting report on a decision by former forests minister Rich Coleman to allow Western Forest Products to withdraw private forest land from three Vancouver Island tree farm licences, much of the work was done by e-mail, teleconferencing and phone calls.

Also, an "excellent" staff of assistant auditors general was working on it in Victoria, said Doyle, former deputy auditor general of Western Australia.

Doyle, who released the report Wednesday, said that shortly after the operation he felt completely healthy, but doctors would not let him take the 28-hour flight from Perth to Victoria until this week.

The welcome mat was not out -- at least as far as the Forests Ministry was concerned.

As reporters were given the report, they were also handed a response from Forests Minister Pat Bell, which Doyle had not seen.

Doyle's speed-read of the first page appeared to support the findings of his report, which said Coleman's decision was made without sufficient information, consultation or attention paid to the public interest.

However, in subsequent pages, Bell took exception to most of the report's major findings.

Bell followed up by slamming Doyle in a media scrum, calling the report unprofessional and lacking in integrity.

"I was a bit surprised," said Doyle.

After decades of doing accountability audits, it is the first time Doyle has seen such a response.

"I have never, ever seen anything like the performance of the minister before," Doyle replied.

Also, the ministry appears to have had some "lapses of corporate memory" over issues such as the definition of public interest and mandate, Doyle said.

Bell lashed out at the auditor general's office for not providing a copy of the report until the day before the release, but Doyle said the draft report was provided to the ministry three and a half weeks ago.

"The report has not changed substantially from that date to this -- maybe some of the typos and grammar have been corrected," he said.

Before accepting the job, Doyle was assured he would have independence and support from both sides of the house and he does not expect recent tensions to affect that.

"I will continue to operate in a fearless way," he said.

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In return, the companies are given access to Crown timber.

Resource policy analyst Ben Parfitt, author of the CCPA study, said there are clear examples of unsustainable cutting on former TFL lands on Vancouver Island, where, unlike the rest of the province, almost one-quarter of forest land is in private hands -- most of it controlled by WFP, TimberWest and Island Timberlands.

Rare Douglas fir ecosystems are being destroyed and public values, such as water, are not being protected, Parfitt said.

"Such disturbing trends highlight why B.C. needs a private forestland reserve, similar to the Agricultural Land Reserve, which would allow governments to ensure private forestlands are managed in the public interest," he said.

WFP chief operating officer Duncan Kerr counters that all the company's private lands, including those withdrawn from TFLs in the latest government decision, are being logged sustainably.

The advantage to taking the land out of the TFL is the company can react to changing market conditions, instead of having to meet Crown land targets, and that is why there are fluctuations in the cut, Kerr said.

"The facts in that report are not correct," he said.

WFP has applied to subdivide more than 2,500 hectares of its private land around Jordan River, and the remainder of the 28,000 hectares, in areas ranging from the west coast to Holberg, will be logged as market conditions dictate, he said.

However, the market is currently in a slump and WFP has asked an investment bank to look at the value of all its private lands, Kerr said.

That does not mean WFP is preparing to sell, either to developers or other forest companies, he said.

"But if we need to release value through asset sales, we need to understand the value of those assets."

The latest evidence is in an eye-popping report delivered on Wednesday by the province's Auditor-General.

John Doyle criticizes a Cabinet Minister's decision to give lumber and wood chip player Western Forest Products Inc. the right to pull thousands of hectares of private land on Vancouver Island from the protection of a tree farm licence arrangement.

The decision, made last year by former minister of forests and range Rich Coleman, represented a $150-million windfall to WFP. Mr. Coleman's brother, Stan, is WFP's manager of strategic planning.

Waterfront real estate is far more valuable a commodity than propriety and trees these days.

WFP contracted to flip the most attractive of its freed-up land to local property developer Ender Ilkay.

He dreamed of building a "green" community for as many as 10,000 people around the village of Jordan River, west of Victoria. But his plan is now "off the rails," he says, thanks to ensuing tumult over the botched removal process.

WFP is not faulted for pulling some of its holdings from the 60-year-old tree farm licence plan, which gave forestry companies exclusive access to Crown forests in exchange for harvest limits.

The problem, Auditor-General Doyle notes in his report, is the lack of scrutiny and oversight that Mr. Coleman put to the file after it landed on his desk.

"The decision to allow removal of the private land from TFLs six, 19 and 26 was not adequately informed," writes the Auditor-General in his report.

Among other things, it was based on "unsupported statements" about WFP's financial health. The Minister "did not do enough to ensure that adequate consideration was given to the public interest," continues the Auditor-General.

Some key neighbours and planners, such as the Capital Regional District, were not consulted and are now fighting to stop residential

development in an area once protected.

About the only thing the ministry got right was ensuring that First Nations groups were consulted.

Even so, some were furious after the decision was announced. So many concerns about the process and the outcome were raised in public that the Auditor-General began his investigation.

Mr. Coleman was shuffled from the forests and range portfolio last month and is now Minister of Housing and Social Development.

He responded to the Auditor-General's report with a written statement. Without mentioning his brother Stan, he acknowledged that he had previously spoken with Mr. Doyle "about perceived conflict of interest concerns

presented to him during the course of his review … Immediately upon learning of these concerns, I contacted [B. C.'s conflict of interest] commissioner and formally requested his opinion [on the matter] … I believe that I have always acted in good faith and respected my position as a minister of the Crown.

"I look forward to receiving the commissioner's opinion and I will make that opinion public."

British Columbians are still waiting for answers on a number of other suspect fronts. It's been more than four years, remember, since the RCMP raided government offices in the legislature buildings, looking for evidence of alleged misdeeds related to the government's sale of B. C. Rail.

Charged with corruption are three former government aides, including Dave Basi, ministerial assistant to Gary Collins, who abruptly resigned his post as finance minister and left politics. Interminable court proceedings have delayed the trial; recently, the B. C. Court of Appeal upheld a B. C. Supreme Court ruling that denied a bizarre application by the Crown to have defence lawyers barred from the courtroom while a secret prosecution witness gave evidence.

The Crown is now seeking leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, which means the B. C. Rail corruption caper will likely not be aired before the next provincial election, to be held in May, 2009. A second case involving Mr.

Basi, the legislature raid and the alleged bribery of yet another government official has not been scheduled for trial.

That's not all: British Columbians are waiting to learn what charges, if any, will result from a police probe into the business affairs of former solicitor-general John Les.

He resigned from Cabinet in March when news emerged of an investigation into decade-old municipal land dealings in Chilliwack, east of Vancouver. Mr. Les was mayor of Chilliwack from 1987 to 1999.

Premier Campbell has already lost some of leading lights from the Cabinet table, ahead of the next election. Scandal did not push out skilled and polished pros such as Geoff Plant and Carole Taylor: They chose to leave politics on their own accord and have been circumspect with their reasons why.

No surprise, then, that B. C. voters are beginning to wonder if this government -- once unassailable, even after the Premier's drunk-driving conviction in 2003 -- has passed its best-before date.

ACC Nation will begin its in-depth (or at least as in-depth as we get) football previewsthe week of July 28. For the four weeks beginning on July 28, we'll have three podcasts per week instead of just one. Each podcast will focus one one team. We'll also have a preview and a feature story on each team on ACCNation.com.

We'll also have lots of good stuff next week from the ACC Football Kickoff at Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro, Ga.

As for this week, not to be outdone by Will, I'd thought I'd give you my preseason predictions on how I see teams finishing this season. I'll give a brief reason why I think each team will finish where I have them, and in parentheses you'll see the date that we'll post both the podcast and website preview for each team.

I've gone out on a limb on some of these, but what's the fun in making predictions if you can't go out on a limb now and again? I'm sure I'll hear from some of you (especially Miami fans), so let me have it (and, when calling me names, be creative).

Coastal

1. Virginia Tech (Aug. 14)-- 11-1, 7-1. I'm sure the Hokies could stumble at several places (ECU, at UNC, at Nebraska come to mind) on the schedule, but I see them losing only at FSU. Something tells me Frank Beamer and Bud Foster will surprise people with this VT team. I just believe Tech is one of those teams that can replace big-time players with big-time players.

2. Virginia (Aug. 13)- 7-5, 5-3 -- I like the skill positions, especially running back. If the line can block and UVa. gets anything from the defense, I think the Cavaliers can manage this schedule. I love the linebackers and I like the secondary. The defensive line situation worries me, but not enough to think it will cause major problems.

3. North Carolina (Aug. 12) -- 6-6, 4-4 -- Can the young players deal with all the preseason hype? I'm not sure, plus I'm not sold that Greg Little is the answer at running back. He'll have to show me more than just two games at the end of the year. The linebackers are young and T.J. Yates missed the spring. Better, but not as good as most everyone is predicting.

4. Georgia Tech (July 30)-- 4-8, 2-6 -- Paul Johnson will get the job done, but it's a little too early to expect much this season. The offense has to learn a completely new system. The defense will also be learning, but I think you'll see a more consistent unit with Dave Wommack replacing Jon Tenuta. Josh Nesbitt will carry a lot of responsibility and the faster he learns the better the Jackets will play.

5. Duke (July 29)-- 4-8, 2-6 -- I really like the hiring of David Cutcliffe, but don't expect too much in his first season. That being said, I love Thaddeus Lewis and his receivers, including Eron Riley, and if the line can give them any time, the Blue Devils will score points this year. The defense will be better, especially up front. Count on it: Duke will win a conference game this year (I'm actually predicting two).

6. Miami (July 31) -- 3-9, 1-7 -- I worry about a team that can lose 48-0 in its last game ever at the Orange Bowl and a coaching staff that lets that happen. This team is young, there is no experience at quarterback and the Hurricanes have a brutal schedule. I know predicting Miami to finish behind Duke seems crazy, but call it a gut feeling.

Atlantic

1. Wake Forest (Aug. 21)-- 11-1, 7-1 -- This is the fastest, and may very well be the best, defense in the ACC. Wake will continue to force turnovers and put its offense in great position this season. You won't see Riley Skinner throwing as much, with the offense relying on Josh Adams and the ground game. The O-line has some question marks. The schedule shapes up nicely with an early trip to Tallahassee before FSU has all of its players back from suspension and a Thursday night home game against Clemson.

2. Clemson (Aug. 6)-- 10-2, 6-2 -- There's not a better set of skill players in the conference, although the offensive line has some holes. So does the defense, especially at linebacker. Clemson seems to be everyone's pick to win the ACC and I think they have a shot, but look for the Tigers to stumble against some team that shouldn't beat them (at UVa.?). Look, I like Clemson, just not as much as I like Wake.

3. Maryland (Aug. 19)-- 9-3, 5-3 -- This is my surprise team. I do wonder who will be the quarterback, but if the Terps can settle on one guy things will be just fine in College Park. Even with losses at running back, the Terps have talent, and the receivers are among the best in the conference. The defense could be a problem, although linebacker looks like a strength for Maryland.

4. Florida State (Aug. 7)-- 6-6, 4-4 -- A tough schedule and questions at quarterback worry me when it comes to FSU. The offensive line will also be a headache all season. The linebackers will be solid, but the Seminoles could struggle up front and in the secondary (again) on defense. If FSU stays healthy and proves it can score points, maybe things improve over recent years, but I don't see it.

5. North Carolina State (Aug. 20)- 6-6, 4-4 -- Like FSU and Maryland in this division, NC State needs to settle on a quarterback. If healthy (a big if) the running backs are very talented and may be the best part of this offense. I like the defensive line, but the rest of the defense could be a problem. Next year this team could contend for a division title, but not this season with Wake and Clemson leading the way.

6. Boston College (Aug. 5)-- 5-7, 1-7 -- Josh Haden will be very good at BC, but I'm not sure that will be the case this season for the true freshman. If Chris Crane is solid, he will have some weapons at receiver, but the offensive line is a concern again. And I don't think Crane will win games late like Matt Ryan did last year. The defense is good enough, but has some questions, especially in the secondary. Last year was magical for the Eagles. This year, not so much.

On backwards compatibility: Jack explained that Sony looked at how to "not take a greater hit on production cost, without losing PlayStation's heritage ... Hardware / software for backwards compat wasn't all that expensive. ... but we're selling PS2 software to PS2 customers, and selling PS3 software to PS3 consumers." Still, Jack seems to feel like it may have been the wrong move. "I would like to have had it in there, but Sony's collective strategy determined we could afford to lose it. We've now gone down that road, and we're not going back."

While it's unfortunate that newer models of the system no longer feature robust backwards compatibility with PS2 titles (remember, PS1 games are still perfectly fine across all SKUs), I tend to agree with Tretton here. Those who wanted BC, like I did, bought the original 60GB system; those looking to buy the system and still want it at least have the software emulation in the 80GB systems. Don't get me wrong; I enjoy the feature greatly. But with games like MGS4 and Call of Duty, I find myself distancing further and further away from playing new or old PS2 games. There's still a few gems I haven't played, like Okami or Odin Sphere, but with so much on its plate right now, Tretton is right; there's no way to move but forward now.

Source: Engadget

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Phil Steele, who publishes and writes one of the most-respect college football preview magazines on the market, joins ACC Nation this week to talk ACC football. Visit Phil's website for more information and to order the magazine.

We discuss all 12 ACC schools and Phil gives us his predictions on which two teams will meet in Tampa for the ACC Football Championship in December. We also ask Phil his thoughts on what the conference needs to do to gain more respect nationally.

At a news conference yesterday, John Doyle released a 73-page report damning Mr. Coleman's failure to consult with the public and local government, and described the minister's analysis of the potential impacts as flimsy.

"I would have expected to see the documentation that supported the decision to be beyond reproach," Mr. Doyle told reporters. "We found it inadequate."

Mr. Coleman did not return calls yesterday but Pat Bell, the new Forests Minister, rejected the findings and complained bitterly about Mr. Doyle's methodology.

"This is a blistering attack on the public service in British Columbia; it is inappropriate," Mr. Bell said. "It was not intended to be useful; there are no recommendations in here that we can take forward and take as constructive criticism."

In a rare personal attack on an independent officer of the legislature, Mr. Bell went on to accuse Mr. Doyle of being "unprofessional" and "lacking in integrity."

Mr. Doyle, who took up the post last fall, shrugged off the criticism and said it is healthy for there to be tension between the government and its watchdogs.

He maintained that the government was given ample opportunity to respond to a draft report, and noted that Mr. Coleman's office had stated in writing that the minister relied solely on an eight-page briefing note for his decision.

Vicky Husband is an environmentalist representing residents in the coastal communities that oppose the development.

She said the Auditor-General's report is grounds for a reversal of the land-use decision.

"I think it's a vindication of the outrage the public has been feeling. ... We are asking the government to reverse the decision and immediately put a stop to any subdivision by Western Forest Products."

Mr. Bell said he will not have the land put back into provincial forestry management.

Duncan Kerr, chief operating officer for Western Forest Products, said his company is continuing to prepare the properties for sale. The company hasn't disclosed the deal's value but an internal government report estimated the change would give the properties a value of $150-million.

"There is no mechanism to rescind the decision even if the government was so inclined," Mr. Kerr said. "The bell cannot be un-rung."

Mr. Coleman, now the Minister for Housing, did release a statement saying he has asked the Conflict of Interest Commissioner to review his conduct in the affair.

His brother, Stan Coleman, is in middle-management at Western Forest Products. Opposition critics raised the potential conflict a year ago, but Rich Coleman said he only approached the Conflict Commissioner 2½ weeks ago when he learned the Auditor-General was going to issue a separate report on the question.

Mr. Kerr said his company sought to have some of its privately owned lands removed from the tree-farm licence program before Stan Coleman joined the company.

The program has been in place since the 1940s and generally granted forest companies access to timber on public lands in exchange for greater government control on their private timberlands.

Rick Jeffery, president of the Coast Forest Products Association, said that old "social contract" has long gone by the wayside through many regulatory changes. He said Mr. Doyle is wrong to suggest the deal wasn't in public interest.

"His definition of the public interest fails to include a healthy, competitive, world-class forest industry in the province," Mr. Jeffery said in an interview. "People should ask the 3,000 forestry workers [at WFP] who are going to benefit from this."

However, employment by Western Forest Products has shrunk since the deal was sealed. The payroll has dropped from 3,000 to 2,400 direct employees, and about 800 of those workers are currently laid off due to temporary mill curtailments.

In his report, Mr. Doyle said the government should have analyzed whether those workers would be better off if the company were allowed to sell off timberlands.

John Horgan, the NDP MLA representing most of the communities affected, said the government is attacking Mr. Doyle in a bid to distract the public from his findings.

"It's trying to deflect the attention away from a profoundly stupid decision made by a minister who is inconceivably still a minister of the Crown."

Jordan River is a favourite haunt for surfers who oppose the proposed development because they fear it will ruin the atmosphere.

It is not within Doyle's mandate to investigate such a complaint, but when he raised the matter, Coleman asked conflict commissioner Paul Fraser for an opinion.

"I believe that I have always acted in good faith and have respected my position as a minister of the Crown," Coleman said in a written statement yesterday.

"I look forward to receiving the commissioner's opinion and I will make that opinion public."

NDP forests critic Bob Simpson said Coleman should have withdrawn from the start from all decisions related to WFP.

"Even perceptions should have caused the minister to withdraw," he said.

Stan Coleman has worked for WFP since Cascadia Forest Products was taken over by WFP in 2006.

Earlier this year, Coleman said he wasn't in conflict, and pointed to a 2005 letter from the former conflict commissioner. That letter, he said, indicates that due to a memo Coleman sent to his deputy minister -- which says any issue to do with his brother should not come to him -- eliminates him from the appearance of conflict.

According to WFP chief operating officer Duncan Kerr, Stan Coleman has had nothing to with deal to remove land from the tree-farm licences. Kerr also said that when the removal process started, Stan Coleman worked for Cascadia.

"When we acquired Cascadia, with hundreds of employees, one of them was the minister's brother and we were clearly aware of the potential for an appearance of conflict, so we elected for the minister's brother to have no part in private land deletions or in dealings at the ministerial level," he said.

The company has no concerns about the investigation and will be happy to co-operate, Kerr said.

The B.C. Securities Commission was also asked to look at possible insider trading after the auditor general's office became aware of an unusual number of shares traded just before the private land deletions, Doyle said.

B.C. Securities Commission spokeswoman Patricia Bowles said a review was conducted "but found insufficient evidence to pursue an investigation." The file was closed in early May, she said.

Forests Minister Pat Bell was furious that Doyle, in releasing his report yesterday, referred to allegations that were not substantiated.

"They found there was no merit to the allegations and there's no further investigation, so what's the point of including that?" he asked.

KEY DATES IN THE FOREST-LAND DEBATE

Feb. 1, 2007 -- Western Forest Products wins government approval to remove more than 28,000 hectares of private land from tree forest licences on Vancouver Island in what critics call a gift at taxpayers' expense. Forests Minister Rich Coleman says about 16,100 hectares will be removed from licences 6 and 19 on northern Vancouver Island, and about 12,000 hectares from licence 25 near Jordan River.

Feb. 9, 2007 -- Kwakiutl First Nation plans legal action to block removal of land from TFLS, accusing the provincial government of failing to consult with the band.

Oct. 19, 2007 -- Two urban-style subdivisions on forested land near Jordan River are accidentally approved because of a mistake by Capital Regional District staff.

Oct. 18, 2007 -- Worried that public access to natural areas such as the popular Jordan River surfing beach might be lost forever to development, the CRD parks committee calls for a six-month moratorium on all development applications in the area.

Oct. 24, 2007 -- The University of Victoria's Environmental Law Clinic asks provincial auditor general to investigate the government's decision to allow WFP to take private lands out of TFLs without public consultation or compensation.

Oct. 26, 2007 -- Newly formed Jordan River Steering Committee, made up of representatives from the Otter Point and Shirley Residents and Ratepayers Association, surfers, unions, environmentalists and First Nations organizes public meeting.

Oct. 31, 2007 -- NDP continues to press the government to request an audit of its release of land from TFLs, but Coleman says his decision regarding WFP is final.

Nov. 1, 2007 -- Yells of approval from more than 350 people, crowded into S.J. Willis school auditorium give an ad hoc committee the go-ahead to fight TFL decision.

Nov. 3, 2007 -- Sooke-based T'sou-ke First Nation cries foul over sell-off of forest land. Vancouver developer Ender Ilkay, who has conditionally offered to buy 2,532 hectares of WFP' land, says he intends to consult with First Nations before any development.

Nov. 14, 2007 -- Capital Regional District plans to freeze most development on huge tracts of land on Vancouver Island's west coast, including former TFL land. Property stretching from the Sooke Potholes to Port Renfrew would be limited to lot sizes of 120 hectares.

Nov. 20, 2008 -- B.C. auditor general John Doyle says his office will investigate the land transfer.

Jan. 15, 2008 -- A community meeting, organized by the mid-Island chapter of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee looking at the effect of land being taken out of TFLs, attracts more than 150 people.

Jan. 16, 2008 -- Coleman tells the Truck Loggers Association convention that B.C. coast has enough parks and protected areas. Loggers no longer need worry about losing timber to parks, he says.

May 6, 2008 -- Angry property owners say they were duped into supporting CRD downzoning of forestry land, not realizing smaller parcels of land would be affected. A new organization calling itself Residents Establishing Process, Access and Independent Records, or REPAIR, has 300 signatures on a petition to CRD asking that zoning bylaws and official community plans for East Sooke, Otter Point, Shirley and Jordan River be rescinded.

June 2, 2008 -- Lawyers for the Sea-to-Sea Greenbelt Society call for the provincial approving officer to hold public hearings before deciding on application by WFP for 319 subdivisions on lands around Jordan River, Otter Point and Shirley.

June 9, 2008 -- Capital Regional District joins the chorus of demands for provincial approving officer to hold public hearings into WFP' application for 319 subdivisions.

July 11, 2008 -- Provincial approving officer offers to attend a mediated public meeting to hear from people opposed to WFP subdivision plans. More than 80 people who turn out for a rally outside Transportation Ministry offices on Broughton Street, call for approving officer Bob Wylie to turn down the application. Many people came because they are alarmed that WFP has already started blasting and road building in the area.

Sandborn said the first step should be for government to kill Western Forest Products' application for 319 acreages on the lands west of Sooke. Also, the private land deletions need to be reversed, he said.

Maurita Prato of the Dogwood Initiative echoed the call.

"The decision has to be rescinded and the WFP subdivision application halted," she said.

The CRD, which took the controversial step of rezoning forestry and resource land on the southwest corner of Vancouver Island to 120-hectare minimum lot size, is applauding Doyle's report, which board chairwoman Denise Blackwell says supports the CRD position.

"I am hopeful that this report will bode well for the future of TFL decisions in B.C. and provide a greater measure of protection for residents who are concerned for the loss of forest lands, recreational opportunities, visual impacts and overall land-use changes," she said.

Protection of rural resource lands and full public consultation before land is removed from a TFL should be an integral part of the political process, said Juan de Fuca electoral area director Erik Lund, who represents the area affected by the private land deletions.

WFP chief operating officer Duncan Kerr said the report reinforces that the land is privately owned and the company acted appropriately.

"And there is no notion of turning the clock back," he said. "This chapter is closed and it's time to move forward."

Environmentalist Vicky Husband said the province has been trying to prop up a company on the verge of collapse.

"We are losing our wild lands to a company on life support," Husband said.

The final arrogance of the government is its failure to respond in adequate time to Doyle's report, Husband said.

"They are trying to undermine the auditor general, who is acting in the public interest," she said.

"The minister was the final check in the process ... but, given the importance of the decision, he did not do enough to ensure that due regard was given to the public interest," the report said.

The report infuriated government and provoked an unprecedented attack on Doyle by Pat Bell, who replaced Coleman as forests minister in a cabinet shuffle in June.

"We are offended by this report," Bell said. "It's totally inappropriate and, if Mr. Doyle thinks this is the way we do business in B.C., he's dead wrong," he said. Doyle came to B.C. from Australia. This is his first major report since his appointment in August 2007.

Doyle said he looked at the process objectively and concluded there was incomplete analysis. "I'm sorry if it upsets anyone, but I actually believe they [the public] should be well informed," he said yesterday at a news conference.

The land in question was in three tree farm licences, including about 2,500 hectares between Sooke and Jordan River. It is conservatively valued at more than $150 million. Coleman announced the decision on Jan. 31, 2007.

Doyle said Coleman made his decision about the land based on a five-page briefing note and a one-page evaluation of Western Forest Products' financial health. "I can't see that they did enough work to support this decision," he said.

Greater weight was given to the company's financial restructuring than to other public interests and, even when undesirable effects were identified, little was done to mitigate them, he said.

Coleman, who became minister of housing and social development last month, issued a brief statement that did not address the report's conclusions, but said other concerns raised by Doyle have been passed to the Conflict of Interest Commissioner.

Coleman has said the decision was necessary to help the forestry company survive in a tough market, thereby saving jobs, but Doyle said the business case was not persuasive and the ministry could not provide any analysis of the financial viability of the company or how the decision would help.

"It certainly raises the question on what basis the decisions were made."

Moreover, the report said, "there was no explanation of how allowing the land removal was in the public interest."

Doyle's scathing report does not make recommendations, as there is little private land remaining in TFLs, but he said he wants other ministries and agencies to better understand the need for public consultation.

Unlike most auditor general's reports, it does not include a response from government because the ministry missed the deadline, even after it was extended, Doyle said.

However, Bell, visibly angry, said he received the final report only the previous day, although he had previously seen a draft copy, and he said the ministry was not given adequate time to respond.

"In my view [the report] is unprofessional and lacking in integrity. Mr. Doyle has not done his homework on it," he said.

The report is a blistering attack on the public service of B.C., an affront to Forests Ministry staff and is filled with inaccuracies, Bell said.

For example, briefing notes added to knowledge of the issue Coleman already had but were not the only information used to make the decision, he said.

As the report does not include recommendations, it cannot be regarded as constructive criticism, said Bell, who supports Coleman's decision-making process.

A ministry news release, issued with Doyle's report, says there could have been more public consultation and the process has been improved for an application by Pope and Talbot to remove private land from a TFL near Revelstoke.

However, Doyle's report ignores the importance of private property rights and contains unsupported statements, errors and omissions, it says.

John Horgan, the NDP MLA for Malahat-Juan de Fuca, said the attack on Doyle is appalling and represents an effort to deflect attention from the real issues.

"For the government to attack an independent officer of the legislature is classless," he said.

NDP forestry critic Bob Simpson said Coleman made a "profoundly stupid decision," adding he thinks it's inconceivable that Coleman is still in cabinet.
A ministry news release, issued with Doyle's report, says there could have been more public consultation and the process has been improved for an application by Pope and Talbot to remove private land from a TFL near Revelstoke.

However, Doyle's report ignores the importance of private property rights and contains unsupported statements, errors and omissions, it says.

John Horgan, the NDP MLA for Malahat-Juan de Fuca, said the attack on Doyle is appalling and represents an effort to deflect attention from the real issues.

"For the government to attack an independent officer of the legislature is classless," he said.

NDP forestry critic Bob Simpson said Coleman made a "profoundly stupid decision," adding he thinks it's inconceivable that Coleman is still in cabinet.

I’ll be frank I’m the shammy that was put on the shelf, and I haven’t been played since pre-BC when shammys were the hordes kamikaze vanguard. We wielded huge two-handed axes, thew our defence to the winds (not that we had a lot of that) and engaged the Alliance in the manner of Scots warriors having at the English, and just when the Alliance thought they had killed us – up we would return with reincarnation and practically half a health bar of retribution to lay down on their asses.

“You can take our lives but you can’t take our Freeeeeeedom”

Pretty much sums up my previous life as a shaman, heck I am even blue – thus warpaint compliant.

Incidentally paladins were the proper English – plated, horsed and hated. The Alliance game-play balance for the Horde shaman. I have a couple of old-world-wow friends who used to play shaman and they did indeed despise the paladin. It was a bit like a racial hatred that came with the shaman class.

Then burning crusade came out. Horde get the paladin. And I have to say we all rolled one gleefully just so we could venture out, start a gank, and then bubble hearth to safety – it had to be done.

There were a lot of changes to shaman gameplay come Burning Crusade. Two-handed weapons were no longer the bomb, windfury crits had been ‘fixed’ and shamans were given dual weapon abilities … all of which completely changed the game play. As happens to many a new ‘main’ arose from the mess and the shammy was shelved. (One shaman I used to run with actually has taken a paladin as a main which is most amusing … his new racial disgruntlement? Well if he ever blogs on his shaman blog it really does appear to be the Draenei shaman class :p heh)

The potential the Wrath of the Lich King expansion (which I shall probably take to calling Wot-licky) is promising shamans is really interesting me, enough that I think I would like to take the shaman into Northrend.

So this blog will be basically about dusting off a lvl 60 shaman, levelling them to 70 and learning to deal with all the game play changes.

A bit about my life, first.  I am recently married to my partner of nine years.  We run a very demanding business.  A business that can not function, without us.  So we are stuck to mini-weekend vacations through-out the year, and the one week, maybe two if we are lucky week long vacation at Christmas.  This leaves us mostly stuck on a local level for travel, except during our Christmas Vacation, where we can venture farther away from home.

Our home, is in Langley, British Columbia, Canada.  A suburb located in Metro Vancouver.  With Less than 4 hours driving, we can easily escape the city.  Perfect for us to take our RV, or what I like to call it, "our second home" where-ever we feel like for a weekend of peace, quiet, and relaxation.

We can never make a decision, until it comes to the last moment.  We talk and talk about exactly what we want, but when it comes down to it, we might find something so completely different, that we must have it.

We talked about a C-Class motor-home.  This makes me nervous, for a few reasons.  High cost of fuel, it has an engine, and with engines, come mechanical "errors," and once you pull up to a campsite, you are basically stuck there without a secondary vehicle to take you to the "yummy gourmet" restaurant you saw in the next town you just drove through on your way to the site.  The idea of getting dressed up, and taking your motor-home to a fancy part of the town/city, doesn't really appeal to me very much.

So I mentioned a travel trailer (TT).  My new husband start to squirm in his chair.   I started going on about how cost effective a TT would be as they are much cheaper than a C-Class, we can tow it with a secondary vehicle, and the secondary vehicle would be much better on fuel than a C-Class.  He told me, it had to be small, 18ft, cause he didn't like the idea of pulling something.  Ok, deal. 

Next thing, New or Used?  I liked the idea of a used one, as again, it's cheap compared to buying a new one.  But the big reason is, I can renovate it, put our own style into it, and still come out, much cheaper, than buying a brand new one.  Yes, I know, watch for leaks, the stove or oven probably wont work in an older one, etc, but that can all be replaced and fixed.   Once I mentioned this to the husband, he went for it, with the low cost, being the deal breaker.

So we are in the search for the perfect "vintage" Travel Trailer.  Preferably something late 70's or early 80's.  Must have a dinette, and a bathroom.  And must have an oven, as a microwave can be difficult to run on solar-panels, when boon docking. 

And thus the blog.  Whatever I come across something, I will post it here.  I will also post our progress in our search for the perfect "second home."