Report From Parliament's Hill - January 17th, 2008

By Prince George - Peace River M.P. Jay Hill

$1-Billion to Help Laid-off Workers and Vulnerable Communities

McBride. Prince George. Mackenzie. Chetwynd. Fort Nelson.  It’s hard to find a community in Prince George-Peace River that hasn’t been hit hard by the bleak situation in the forest industry. 

As if the economic conditions aren’t bad enough, flood and fire further threatened forest workers in Prince George this week thanks to the ice-jammed Nechako River and a fire at the PG Pulp Mill.

Just as government can’t stop flood and fire, we can’t control the current volatility in the global marketplace that’s placing economic hardship on forest workers and their families.  No, the Government of Canada does NOT control or set the value of the Canadian dollar.  We can’t do anything about the dramatic downturn in the United States housing market and we absolutely CANNOT subsidize private industry with tax dollars.  Even the opposition parties, for all their partisan rhetoric, acknowledge this.

I fully recognize that this blunt yet honest statement is not at all helpful when you face losing your home, uprooting your family or seeing your town’s very existence in peril.  However, I want to assure our local forest communities that our Conservative Government has been working for months, well before we promised to take action in the Speech from the Throne last fall, to find a way to save these communities with jobs and hope for the future.  And now these efforts have a value:  $1-BILLION!

Last week, the Prime Minister personally unveiled the new National Community Development Trust which is designed to help provinces assist communities and workers suffering economic hardship arising from current global market turmoil.

For forest workers and communities in our riding, it’s good news.  The Trust is primarily aimed at one-industry towns facing major downturns, or communities plagued by chronic high unemployment, or regions hit by layoffs across a range of sectors.

Most of us recognize the irony in the fact that while our regional oil and gas sector still faces some labour shortages, the forest sector suffers through layoffs and shut-downs.  This trust will support job training to create opportunities in sectors facing labour shortages, along with community transition plans that foster economic development and create new jobs, and infrastructure development that stimulates economic diversification.

The details surrounding the agreement between the federal government and the Province of British Columbia have yet to be finalized, but this NEW money is financed through a one-time allocation from this year’s surplus and, therefore, yes… it’s dependent upon passage of the budget this Spring.  That’s the way our democratic government works – you need Parliamentary budget authority to spend tax dollars.  It is money from this year that must be approved by Parliament, before March 31^st to ensure the fund is in place for the coming years. 

Western Premiers were optimistic about the assistance this Trust will provide.  In Ontario and Quebec the words “not significant” and “insufficient” were actually used to describe the $1-billion initiative!

In fact it is clear to anyone who can count that this is the most ‘significant’ of responses that the federal government could possibly provide and it will benefit families and entire communities in our riding, and across our country.

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