OTTAWA (PoliticsWatch posted
October 8, 2002 @ 5:30 p.m.) Opposition leaders are calling the
$247 million aid package for the softwood lumber industry
"pathetic" and say omitting loan guarantees means
Canadians will continue to lose the battle.
New Democratic Party leader
Alexa McDonough called the package "paltry" and
"pathetic" outside the House of Commons.
 "Unemployment
surplus is $42 billion dollars and the best that federal
Liberal government could come up with to deal with 45,000
forestry workers is a paltry $247 million program," she
said. "There's nothing to address to loan guarantees to
prevent small forestry companies from going under, resulting in
the loss of great number of jobs. And it absolutely does not
respond to the urgency of the situation."
Canadian Alliance leader
Stephen Harper said the aid is sending the wrong message.
"We're fairly disturbed
about the philosophy behind the softwood lumber package,"
he said in a scrum. "What it really does is it treats the
industry as if it's dead. You start retraining people,
refocusing communities. What we think should be happening is a
package that helps the industry fight this battle, including
loan guarantees."
Natural Resources Minister
Herb Dhaliwal announced the package in British Columbia, which
has been hardest hit by the dispute and the 27 per cent U.S.
duty.
 As
expected, the federal government will provide $71 million to
assist displaced workers, $110 million for a national Softwood
Industry and Community Adjustment Fund for community economic
development, $23.5 million for a new centre of excellence for
pulp and paper in Trois-Rivières, Que. and $2-million to
support a boreal forest research consortium in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean
region of Quebec.
The government is also
providing $40 million towards research in fighting pine beetle
infestations in British Columbia.
Dhaliwal said further
assistance could be in the works if the dispute continues to
drag on.
However, Industry Minister
Allan Rock said negotiations with the United States are hopeful.
 "Mr.
Pettigrew is trying to get the Americans back to the table and
will be continuing those efforts," he said outside the
House of Commons. "But what we've done is certainly in
terms of the community assistance element of the package, we've
planned the money over two years to provide economic development
opportunities. We hope they don't need it for that long."
The federal government
avoided loan guarantees for small and medium sized companies
because it could considered a subsidy, drawing further
retaliation from the United States.
But Harper suggested there
is a way to frame the loan guarantees so it isn't looked at as a
benefit. At the same time, he urged Canada to defend itself
against the United States.
"We better be in this
to win," he said. "I think it's about time we start
acting like boy scouts in some of these disputes and start to
actually do whatever's in our power to help our Canadian
producers to fight this."
Read these related
PoliticsWatch stories:
 Softwood
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Ottawa
tight lipped about help for beleaguered softwood lumber
industry
Pettigrew
calls U.S. softwood lumber levy obscene
Ontario
calls on Ottawa to abandon softwood lumber talks
Provinces
and industry are united with Ottawa in the softwood lumber
negotiations, says Pettigrew
Pettigrew
pledges to protect lumber remanufacturers
Pettigrew
meets U.S. supporters of Canada's
softwood lumber position
Ottawa
will use NAFTA to challenge U.S. duties
Clark
urges Chrétien to talk to President Bush about softwood
lumber dispute
NDP
asks Ottawa to aid lumber industry as talks drag on
New
negotiating strategy needed on softwood lumber file: Casey
Pettigrew:
Stumped! Softwood lumber dispute goes off the rails
Pettigrew
'Balkanizing' federal trade policy on softwood lumber: MP WTO
sides with Canada on softwood lumber tariff
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