Brascan's Reid Carter was on the islands Thursday and Friday, taking a look at the forest lands his company's in the process of buying from Weyerhaeuser. Mr. Carter, who is Brascan's Timberland Asset Manager, met with Port mayor Dale Lore as well as representatives of the Council of the Haida Nation and employees. He also had a quick look at some of the logging operations in TFL 39 and the forest practices used here.
"Right now, we are really just trying to put a face on who Brascan is and give as much information as we can about how we expect to operate here. I think we'll, I'm hoping, we can make some friends here. We certainly try to be open and transparent. Things look good. But lots of challenges," Mr. Carter told the Observer.
He also said the constitutional duty to consult and accommodate is a provincial responsibility, not one for Brascan.
"That's a Haida -government issue. We will certainly participate in any way that we are asked. We'll try to be as helpful as we can to the process. But we have no direct role in that."
Mr. Carter says that Brascan is very interested in the private forest lands it has acquired than in the rights to Crown land.
"The primary asset we are focused on is the private timberlands, we've made it quite clear, and there are just under 11,000 acres of private timberlands here," he said, " we fully intend to have a long-term presence, at a minimum, in that part of the business. It's not our intention to stay in the Crown timber and converting-sawmilling and remanufacturing. Although we have a very significant stake in where that business goes and how it is run."