Re-Capturing the Wealth Investment Solutions for Jobs and Environmental Sustainability in BC’s Resource Sector by Dale Marshall Part of a series of CCPA research papers on the BC resource sector Please make a donation… Help us continue to offer our publications free on-line. We make most of our publications available free on on our website. Making a donation or taking out a member- ship will help us continue to provide people with access to our ideas and research free of charge. You can make a donation or become a member on-line at www.policyalternatives.ca, or you can print and fill out the form at the back of this publication. Or you can contact the BC Office at 604-801-5121 for more information. Suggested donation for this publication: $10, or whatever you can afford. CANADIAN CENTRE FOR POLICY ALTERNATIVES About the author Dale Marshall is a researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives—BC Office. His area of specialization at the Centre is BC’s natural resource sectors. He holds a Master’s degree in resource and environmental management from Simon Fraser University. Acknowledgments A number of people provided valuable assistance, advice, and feedback on this project. The author wishes to thank, Mae Burrows, David Cadman, Karen Campbell, Shannon Daub, Sean Griffin, Seth Klein, David Lane, Marc Lee, Phillip Legg, Mike Magee, Lisa Matthaus, Stephen McBride, Doug Muir, David Peerla, Kim Pollock, Gerry Scott, George Watts, Fred Wilson, and Alan Young. The contents, opinions, and any errors contained in this report are the full responsibility of the author. Our thanks to the following for their financial assistance: the Brainerd Foundation; the British Columbia Federation of Labour; the Canadian Auto Workers Union; the Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers Union of Canada; the David Suzuki Foundation; the Endswell Foundation; the George Cedric Metcalfe Foundation; the International Fund for Animal Welfare; Mountain Equipment Co-op; Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada; and West Coast Environmental Law. July 2001 Cover artwork by Fraser Wilson, from the Maritime Labour Centre mural Cover design by Dirk Van Stralen Layout by Nadene Rehnby ISBN 0-88627-255-6 $10 Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – BC Office 1400 – 207 West Hastings St Vancouver, BC V6B 1H7 Tel: (604) 801-5121 • Fax: (604) 801-5122 • e-mail: [email protected] Contents Summary ................................................................................................................. 4 Origins of the CCPA Resource Economics Project ................................................. 7 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 8 Section 1: Why does investment matter? ....................................................... 10 1.1 The productivity edge ................................................................................. 10 1.2 Growth and jobs ......................................................................................... 11 1.3 The value in value-added ............................................................................ 12 1.4 The role of environmental regulations ....................................................... 13 1.5 Evidence of an investment slowdown ........................................................ 14 Section 2: Forestry ............................................................................................. 16 2.1 Value-added opportunities in forestry ........................................................ 16 2.2 The trend towards eco-certification ............................................................ 20 2.3 Investment in closed-loop pulp production ............................................... 21 2.4 Forest tenure reform ................................................................................... 23 Section 3: Fisheries ............................................................................................ 26 3.1 Adding value to fishing communities ......................................................... 26 3.2 Environmental investments to preserve fish ............................................... 30 Section 4: BC’s non-renewable industries: mining, oil, and gas ................. 32 4.1 A trust fund approach ................................................................................ 32 4.2 Community transition bonds..................................................................... 33 4.3 Value-added in minerals: The recycling of minerals ................................... 35 Section 5: The big picture: overall investment solutions............................. 38 5.1 Understanding investment and planning for re-investment ...................... 38 5.2 A Provincial Resource Investment Bank .................................................... 39 5.3 Community economic development ......................................................... 40 5.4 Making resource corporations more accountable to workers and the public ........................................................................... 41 5.5 Employee ownership of resource corporations ........................................... 44 Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 45 Notes ...................................................................................................................... 48 References.............................................................................................................. 50 Summary THIS PAPER IS AN INVENTORY OF EXCITING POLICY IDEAS – SOME POLICY “STICKS”, but mostly policy “carrots” – for encouraging new investment in BC’s resource sector. Instead of a piece- meal approach, what is needed is a comprehensive strategy for getting investment – from many places and in different forms – to move the resource sector towards a more viable and responsible position. Investment is crucial in any industry. It is a prerequisite for job creation and productivity improve- ments. New investment is also necessary if BC’s resource sector is to adopt new environmentally-friendly technologies and move up the value chain, thereby providing resource-dependent communities with both economic stability and environmental sustainability. When corporations mount campaigns to protest what they call government intervention, they often do so by using the media to “inform” the public about government intrusion into the business world generally, and the activity of the markets more specifically. One of the more unfortunate consequences of this activity is that the public, in whole or in part, begins to believe that government is nothing but a nuisance to business. The investment strategy outlined in this paper challenges BC’s resource corporations to enter into a new social contract with British Columbians, by working cooperatively with the government that rep- resents them. This approach concedes that there are changes government can make in order for resource corporations to more effectively operate in this province. However, it also argues that corporations have responsibilities too. But a new approach also involves looking for alternatives to the present industrial and investment structure. BC must develop alternative sources of investment. The more options a government has to choose from with respect to managing its resources, the more bargaining power it has with each entity wanting a piece of those public resources. Recent investment patterns The resource sector in BC was plagued throughout the 1990s by a lack of investment. Forest companies have invested just enough to counter the depreciation of their aging machinery. Opportunities to be- come more efficient and productive in pulp and to move up the value chain in solid wood have been foregone, leaving the industry in an uncompetitive and unstable position compared to forest companies elsewhere in Canada and abroad. Metal mining companies have dramatically reduced their exploration expenses. Some, like Placer Gold, have pulled out of the province altogether, preferring to invest in existing mines in locations like Chile, with dubious environmental and labour records. The trend in the commercial salmon fishery has been towards consolidation of the fleet and invest- ment in salmon aquaculture. The major salmon farmers in the province – including BC Packers, one of the “big three” wild salmon fishing companies – are now multi-nationals that have turned their invest- ment dollars towards operations in Chile, Norway, and the U.S. 4 Re-Capturing the Wealth Results of the investment slowdown The slowdown in investment is unsettling for several reasons. The first is that real investment – invest- ment in physical things like machinery and buildings rather than stocks, bonds, and other paper invest- ments – leads to increases in productivity. And productivity gains across an economy eventually translate into job growth. A second result of the decline in investment is that BC is still too dependent on basic commodity production: lumber, pulp, salmon, gold, and copper. Yet value-added production in fish and forest products is the only way to sustain growth on a fixed resource base. Non-renewable resources like metals can only be made more renewable by taking advantage of their durability through reusing and recycling them. In BC, we have not sufficiently engaged in any of these activities by failing to invest in the manufacturing and marketing of value-added