Sun Wave sells a forest

Sun Wave Forest Products has pocketed 1 million dollars as the owners of Prince Rupert’s mothballed pulp and paper mill sold the forest licence to Gitxsan Forest Enterprises.

The Gitxsan acquire a large portion of their traditional territory from the Chinese owners of the pulp mill and the plan is to be in the woods in the next three weeks cutting trees.

Sun Wave which says they still plan to operate the pulp mill by the Spring of 2007, but that they have no interest in harvesting the timber themselves. Though to the casual observer in Prince Rupert, there doesn’t seem to be much happening on Watson Island at the moment to suggest a spring opening. Sun Wave has until the first week of 2008 to be up and running in order to live up to the terms of a tax exemption deal they negotiated with the City of Prince Rupert.

The Daily News had the details on the forest sell to the Gitxsan on the front page of the Monday edition of the paper.

SUN WAVE SELLS OFF FOREST LICENCE
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Monday, December 11, 2006
Page one

The Gitxsan have acquired a large chunk of their traditional territory from the owners of Prince Rupert’s pulp mill.

Gitxsan Forest Enterprises (GFE) will pay Sun Wave Forest Products $1 million to acquire the harvest right to 390,000 cubic metres per year in the Kispiox Timber Supply Area.

“The deal moves us towards our goal of achieving control of activities on our traditional territories,” said Gordon Sebastian. Gitxsan Treaty Office executive director. “It’s what we spent 20 years fighting for in the courts in the Delgamuukw case. This time we’re approaching it from another angle, from an economic angle.”

Discussions for the forest licence began almost immediately after Sun Wave announced they had acquired the remnants of New Skeena Forest Products. On July 18, Sun Wave handed over all of the information on the forest licence to Gitxsan Forest Enterprises to help the company get a complete picture of the rights and obligations associated with the tenure. The sale follows many months of research by the Gitxsan on assets and liabilities associated with the licence including silviculture commitments, logging road obligations and cutting permit information.

“The time to do this deal was now,” said Myrtle Muldoe, GFE president. “We should be cutting trees within two to three weeks.

“It will be good for everyone, living within our traditional territories – Gitxsan and non-Gitxsan alike.”

The Gitxsan say they have been informed by Sun Wave that while the company is interested in operating the Watson Island pulp mill, it has not interest in harvesting timber itself. In July, the company said it is expected the deal will generate 300 jobs in the bush, trucking, silviculture activities and in tenure management.

GFE is controlled by the hereditary chiefs of the Gitxsan, while Sun Wave is a subsidiary of the China Paper Group; China Paper owns nine paper and three pulp mills in China. In 2005, through Sun Wave, they purchased the assets of New Skeena Forest Products, including the pulp mill in Rupert, sawmills in the Northwest and forest tenure for $3.5 million. Sebastian said the president of China Paper met with Gitxsan hereditary chiefs a month ago and told the group that plans were in place to open the Prince Rupert pulp mill in the spring of 2007, In order to keep a tax exemption deal with the city, the company must produce pulp by the first week of 2008.

A public signing ceremony was held Saturday, where an initial payment of $250,000 was handed over for the land.