Senator Baucus causes cross-border ruckus - Feb. 28/05

By GERRY WARNER
Staff Writer
Cranbrook Daily Townsman
Montana Senator Max Baucus stared down a crowd of close to 100 angry Fernie residents Friday afternoon and didn't give an inch on any of the issues he came to talk about during a stormy two-hour meeting.
Baucus, a five-term Democratic Senator and highest ranking Democrat on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, said he invited himself to the meeting and cleared it through officials in Victoria and Ottawa. But many in the often-hostile crowd didn't believe him, including East Kootenay MLA Bill Bennett, who accosted the Montana Senator before he even had a chance to enter the Fernie Senior Citizens Drop-in Centre where the meeting was eventually held.
"I'd like to tell you sir that you're actually not welcome here. I've read what you've said over the past 25 years about Canada. You don't want our softwood in the States. You don't want our beef. Now you have something against our coal mining."
Bennett said Montana has its own coal mining industry and generates electricity by burning coal. As a result, he said he couldn't understand Baucus's concern about coal mining on the Canadian side of the border. "I wouldn't dream of coming to Montana to tell you how to manage your natural resources so I resent the fact that you're here," said the MLA to large cheers from the crowd.
But Baucus stood his ground, saying he was visiting Fernie to hear the point of view of citizens on joint environmental issues such as a coal drilling project now underway in the Upper Flathead Valley by the Cline Mining Corporation."The more we talk and the more we share facts and get to know each other personally, the more it helps," he said. In a release issued prior to the meeting, Baucus said the drilling near the north fork of the Flathead River, which flows across the border into Glacier National Park in Montana, "has no economic benefits, only environmental consequences for Montana."
More fireworks erupted when Baucus faced the crowd inside the seniors' centre and told them that Cline had been turned down by the B.C. government the first time it applied for an exploration permit and then had been quietly issued one despite a lack of baseline data about possible harmful environmental effects. "It makes sense to make these decisions on the basis of sound science," he said, adding it was in the best interests of both Canadians and Americans to make cross-border resource decisions as "North Americans."
"We're North Americans, but there is a border and you're full of shit, shouted one of the hecklers in the crowd.
Baucus and Bennett tangled again inside the building over softwood lumber duties with Bennett accusing Baucus of leading the softwood duty battle against Canadian producers and calling for the $3 billion in duties collected by the U.S. government to be distributed to American lumber producers." Senator Baucus, this is not a Canada, U.S. thing," said Bennett. "You have chosen throughout your career to kick the hell out of Canada and you've got to stop doing it. If you want to have a polite, constructive dialogue with us about softwood, beef and mining, we're happy to do that, but you've got to stop kicking the crap out of us in the newspapers in Montana." Bennett eventually stormed out of the meeting followed by about 30 cheering supporters.
After he left, Baucus told the crowd, Americans will continue the softwood fight because they believe the Canadian lumber industry is subsidized despite several NAFTA and WTO decisions to the contrary."We believe the Crown sets stumpage rates at below market prices to create jobs in Canada and to send cheap softwood lumber down to the U.S."
Baucus also took on local rancher Faye Street, the president of the East Kootenay Livestock Association, telling her he doesn't support the re-opening of the American border to Canadian beef exports even though it's scheduled to happen March 7. Reminding Baucus of his talk before about basing decisions on science, Street shot back, "you're not basing your decision on science. You're basing it on political protectionism."
When the meeting was over, Bennett said he wanted to stand up for Canadians and make a point. "But we couldn't get any straight answers out of the Senator. He's up here in Fernie saying he wants to work with Canada and he believes in constructive solutions and that's B.S. He can't be trusted."
Baucus adopted a conciliatory tone after the meeting. "Essentially I heard the deep concerns of the Canadian people on a lot of issues and it's deep. It's fierce. I knew intellectually the Canadian concerns about BSE, lumber and the mining issue, but to actually talk to people here in British Columbia about these issues has raised my understanding to a new level." Despite the hostile reception he got, Baucus said he would be willing to come back to another meeting.
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