Where's The Beef...And Trees...In The Budget?

By Michelle Cyr-Whiting

Cariboo North NDP MLA Bob Simpson says, "The absolute missing component of this budget is any sense of the threats that we are facing in our major resources sectors in our resource-dependent communities."

"The agriculture sector is struggling and the forest sector can’t be described as anything other than ’on its knees’ between the softwood lumber, the deterioration of the fiber supply, the failure to attract capital on the coast and, now we’re hearing because of the mountain pine beetle, it’s going to be harder and harder to attract capital in the interior," says Simpson.

The NDP’s Forest and Range critic points out forestry is still one of the largest contributors to the government’s revenue and says he was struck by the omission of any programs or supports in the 2007 budget to offset what might happen in the forestry sector.

In addition, Simpson says the budget document contains a line item showing revenue generated from the softwood lumber border tax:  in 2006-07 the amount was $250-thousand dollars, but it’s expected to rise to $400-million dollars in 2007-08. 

However, the area MLA says the money is not ear-marked to help the industry.  "It just disappears into general revenue," says Simpson, "And what I’ve been saying all along is that should be targetted funds back into forest health, fire and community transition because it’s just found money, it’s directly associated to that industry and should go back into that industry."

Simpson says this budget also proves the provincial liberals have dropped the ball on the federal promise of $1-billion dollars for the mountain pine beetle - "It’s not there, there’s no plan for it, there’s nothing, they haven’t been able to secure it, so there’s another $100-million dollars a year that they’ve failed to secure from the federal government that was promised in the last federal election and put in the last federal budget."

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