While we welcome discussion and debate, we were surprised by the July 7 Don Maroc column. It is riddled with significant factual errors and assertions that show a complete lack of understanding of public company governance and decision-making processes.

Let me address the more egregious errors:

• Third Avenue Management (TAM) is among Catalyst’s major shareholders but it has never held a controlling interest nor has it ever “taken over” Catalyst. Based on recent public documents it holds less than 35 per cent of Catalyst’s outstanding shares. Our shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange and are held by a number of mutual funds, pension plans and individuals in Canada and beyond.

• Third Avenue Management does not hold shares in, nor did it ever control Abitibi-Bowater, and we understand it owns only a very small position in Timberwest. At no time has TAM had representatives on the boards of either company.

• Our acquisition of the Snowflake, Arizona mill was financed primarily through new equity, made available in a rights offering to all of the company’s shareholders. Alleging that TAM orchestrated the acquisition, in some unspecified way, for its own benefit to the disadvantage of the company in which it holds shares – and somehow uniquely increased its own net worth in the process – is simply without basis in law, fact, or common sense.

• Unlike our Coquitlam-based paper recycling facility which produces de-inked pulp, our Snowflake mill manufactures recycled newsprint, a completely different product.

• Management is accountable to the Catalyst Paper Board of Directors for business development and day-to-day operating decisions including capital spending, curtailments, contractual negotiations and the recent exhaustive consumption-by-class analysis that underlies our position on Class 4 property taxation. Our tax challenge is based on the need to correct a longstanding inequity that jeopardizes the viability of our mills; any cash saved stays in the company and is used for corporate purposes.

The decline in stock price represents the market’s collective judgement on the value of a company, and this directly affects access to capital markets and capacity for investment in the future.

Decisions on how to restore investment community confidence in the future of our business are made here, in British Columbia, by local managers and executives.

We aim to base decisions on dialogue and have always respected alternative points-of-view. We know those views will often be provocative, but we also expect they will be based on good research, factual accuracy and rational assessment.

Sadly, the recent column fell short on all of the latter.

Lyn Brown is Vice President, Corporate Relations and Social Responsibility.