How to save forestry
December 15, 2011
By Rainy River Record
Dec. 15, 2011 - New Democrat MP John Rafferty brought up three forestry related motions in the House of Commons, to help support the struggling sector.
Dec. 15, 2011 – New Democrat MP John Rafferty brought up three forestry
related motions in the House of Commons, to help support the struggling
sector.
“These motions are my attempt to put the forestry sector back on the
federal agenda, and to provide some positive ideas for the government to
pick up and run with,” Rafferty said. “Ideally, I would hope it could
serve as a blueprint for action to ensure the short, medium, and long
term prosperity of this important sector of the northern and rural
economy in Canada.”
According to an article in the Rainy River Record, the motions call on the federal
government to provide funding and loans to shift towards the emerging bio-fuel, bio-chemical, and
bio-medical product markets, convene bi-annual forestry summits and counter unfair
foreign subsidies in competing nations.
Rafferty said several regional developments over the last decade and in
the last few weeks convinced him that the troubles in the forestry
sector must remain on the agenda in Ottawa.
“We’ve lost more than
60,000 direct forestry jobs in the last decade in Ontario, and the
recent layoffs at the Resolute Forest Products mill in Fort Frances and
the closure of the Terrace Bay mill tell me the crisis is ongoing and
possibly intensifying. Ottawa must act now and I feel that I am obliged
to offer some solutions as a Member of Parliament.”
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