Pubdate: Sat, 16 Sep 2000
Source: Yukon News (CN YK)
Website: http://www.yukon-news.com/
Address: 211 Wood Street Whitehorse, Yukon Territory Y1A 2E4, Canada
Contact:  Richard Mostyn, Yukon News Senior Reporter

SAWMILL IMPLEMENTS DRUG TESTS

Dakwakada Forest Products Inc. has declared war on drugs.

The Haines Junction sawmill, owned by the Champagne and Aishihik First
Nation, has initiated random drug testing among its 18 full-time employees.

And no one is above the tests. If you refuse to take the tests, you are
suspended without pay until you do.

Thursday, Paul Birckel, the company's president and a former chief of the
First Nation, had to provide a urine sample.

He was the third employee to be singled out for the twice-monthly tests,
which cost the company $50 apiece.

"I was picked this time," Birckel said from Haines Junction. "I have no
problem with it. I don't do drugs anyway.

"I think it's important. Somebody has to get something going. It's a pretty
big problem up here."

In fact, the lumber business was great last year, buoyed by good prices and
a strong market.

The mill, which is cutting beetle-killed trees around Haines Junction and
producing the territory's only kiln-dried, graded and stamped lumber, has
had up to 46 full-time employees.

It pumped about $1 million in wages into the Haines Junction economy last
year.

"It got a lot of people off social assistance and unemployment," said Jackie
McBride-Dickson, the company's vice-president of resource development.

"It changed a lot of lives. The downside was a spike in drug use."

Specifically, some residents reported seeing a rise in the use of cocaine,
ecstasy and marijuana, she said.

So, to combat the problem, Dakwakada initiated the random drug-testing
policy.

"We've seen a decrease in drug use," she said.

It's simple; if you want to work for Dakwakada, you have to be clean, she
said.

People who complain the company is infringing on their rights don't get it,
she said.

Those people have a choice, they can do drugs, or they can work at the mill.
"It's their choice."

If an employee does test positive, they are suspended. But the company will
help them to get treatment for the problem.

There is no discrimination. If they pass a future drug test, they get their
old job back and they can keep the job as long as they remain clean, said
McBride-Dickson.

The company has run the drug-testing policy by the Yukon Human Rights
Commission.

"It's not acceptable to be doing an illegal substance," said
McBride-Dickson. "It really is in the best interest of people."

So far, nobody has tested positive, nobody has resigned and complaints are
starting to level off.

"We're not asking anyone to do anything we are not willing to do ourselves,"
said McBride-Dickson, who was the first to provide a sample for testing. She
did it voluntarily.

"All it showed was dangerously high levels of PMS," she quipped, laughing.

The tests were initiated after some employees approached her about drug use
at the mill.

"Employees approached me and said, 'There is a drug problem.' They were
concerned about safety" at the sawmill.

Doing the tests was the only way the company could ensure there was no drug
use on the site, she said.

And implementing such a policy is not easy on the company. It's actually a
risk.

It's possible that some less community-spirited company could steal away
some of its employees by offering comparable wages but no tests.

That's one of the reasons McBride-Dickson would like other First Nations, as
well as the Yukon government, to follow its zero-tolerance policy.

"Wouldn't that be the best thing for all people living here?" she asked.

"By putting the policy in place, you increase the quality of life of workers
over the long term.

"Using (banned) drugs is unacceptable. And you know what, it's illegal, so I
don't know why it would be a problem."

As for Birckel, his test results will be returned in a week, or so.

But he's not worried about the outcome. "I have heart pills, that's it," he
said.

They're not likely to be picked up on the test, which looks for specific
chemical substances, he added.

"Last year and into the summer, a few people were pretty bad," said Birckel.
"You can tell in the eyes. You've got to start somewhere."
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MAP posted-by: Don Beck