This page contains annotated news stories and press releases with commentary about land reform and the democratic process in British Columbia. Our comments are shown in red.
The fact is Coleman made an uninformed decision, without public consultation or compensation.
The fact is the public missed out, and BC's largest coastal logging company, WFP, was given a gift.
The fact is Coleman's brother was working for WFP when the deal went down.
And those are still the facts.
The fact is the public missed out, and BC's largest coastal logging company, WFP, was given a gift.
The fact is Coleman's brother was working for WFP when the deal went down.
And those are still the facts.
Conflict or no, it's a bad deal
Oct 02, 2008Times Colonist
Former forests minister Rich Coleman has been cleared of a conflict-of-interest allegation in his handling of the Western Forests Products file.
That's fair.
It isn't fair, however, to suggest that he and the B.C. Liberal government were not at fault in allowing the forest company to remove land from its tree farm licences on Vancouver Island in the first place.
The alleged conflict -- that Coleman allowed the transfer in order to benefit his brother, Stan, who worked for the company -- was only a tiny element, and a peripheral one, to the matter.
As Conflict of Interest Commissioner Paul Fraser noted, no well-informed person would reasonably think that Coleman would let his brother's position with the company influence the ministry's decision to allow the removal of 28,000 hectares from the TFLs.
(Well, actually, auditor general Jim Doyle did note that his office's review of the matter "raised concerns" about just such a conflict, which in turned prompted Fraser's investigation. So at least one well-informed individual had expressed doubts.)
In any case, it's reasonable to presume that Coleman would have approved the land transfer even it he didn't have a brother. And that's the main point.
The deal still amounts to an enormous $200-million gift to a forest company without any reward for the taxpayers. In fact, taxpayers lose twice because it removes for perpetuity 28,000 hectares from forestry production.
The giveaway also amounts to an end-run around the rights of southern Vancouver Island residents, through the Capital Regional District, to make land-use decisions in their communities.
Clearing Coleman of this conflict-of-interest charge preserves a small bit of his integrity. But that's all it does.
That's fair.
It isn't fair, however, to suggest that he and the B.C. Liberal government were not at fault in allowing the forest company to remove land from its tree farm licences on Vancouver Island in the first place.
The alleged conflict -- that Coleman allowed the transfer in order to benefit his brother, Stan, who worked for the company -- was only a tiny element, and a peripheral one, to the matter.
As Conflict of Interest Commissioner Paul Fraser noted, no well-informed person would reasonably think that Coleman would let his brother's position with the company influence the ministry's decision to allow the removal of 28,000 hectares from the TFLs.
(Well, actually, auditor general Jim Doyle did note that his office's review of the matter "raised concerns" about just such a conflict, which in turned prompted Fraser's investigation. So at least one well-informed individual had expressed doubts.)
In any case, it's reasonable to presume that Coleman would have approved the land transfer even it he didn't have a brother. And that's the main point.
The deal still amounts to an enormous $200-million gift to a forest company without any reward for the taxpayers. In fact, taxpayers lose twice because it removes for perpetuity 28,000 hectares from forestry production.
The giveaway also amounts to an end-run around the rights of southern Vancouver Island residents, through the Capital Regional District, to make land-use decisions in their communities.
Clearing Coleman of this conflict-of-interest charge preserves a small bit of his integrity. But that's all it does.