Rafferty calls for national forestry summit

OTTAWA – Member of Parliament and New Democrat Forestry Critic John Rafferty (Thunder Bay – Rainy River) called upon the Minister of Natural Resources, Lisa Raitt, to convene a national forestry summit to help the industry, communities, and families that have been hurt by the prolonged six year crisis.

“It’s time for the federal government to lead the way and convene a summit to help the forestry industry and dependent communities and families get help during this crisis and come out of it in a strong position,” Rafferty said. “The silence has been deafening. There have been 45,000 layoffs and job losses in every single province, so the crisis is truly national and federal leadership is clearly required.”

The crisis has also hit close to home for Rafferty as several mills have recently been shuttered in his riding of Thunder Bay – Rainy River. “We have seen a lot of mills close in our local communities over the years. Most recently, Northern Hardwoods has turned the power off in their shuttered plant and Abitibi-Bowater has again laid-off workers in Fort Frances. Hundreds of families and businesses in our smaller communities depend on these mills for their livelihood and they have been devastated by this crisis.”

Rafferty made his call in a letter to the Minister that was hand delivered to her office, and underscored his request during Question Period in the House of Commons. Rafferty however, did not get the answer he wanted, but has vowed to press the issue further. “We got a non-answer today from the government, but I’m hopeful they will come around to the idea. It’s been requested by the industry and by two different parliamentary committees recently, so the calls are getting hard to ignore,” Rafferty said.

According to the Forestry Products Association of Canada, the forestry industry in Canada is an $84 billion a year industry that directly or indirectly employs 863,000 people in all provinces of the country. Since 2003, there have been more than 45,000 confirmed layoffs or job losses in the struggling industry. According to Industry Canada, the auto industry in Canada is a similar sized industry in dollar value, employs 463,000 Canadians, and has projected up to 20,000 job losses in the coming years. In the most recent federal budget, the auto industry received $4 billion in assistance but just $170 million was earmarked for the forestry industry.