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Liberal candidate makes forestry pitch |
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Written by GORDON HOEKSTRA
Citizen staff
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Monday, 06 October 2008 |
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CONSERVATIVESFORESTS MINISTER PAT BELLPRINCE GEORGE AIRPORTDAWSON CREEK
Using the remnants of the North Central Plywoods plant destroyed in a fire as a backdrop, Prince George-Peace River candidate Lindsay Gidney said a Liberal government would do more for communities suffering from a forestry downturn than the ruling Conservatives.
Gidney, flanked by Liberal Senator Larry Campbell, pointed to Conservative leader Stephen Harper's comment from the recent leadership debates that Canadians are not worried about their jobs or losing their homes.
"If you believed the Conservative prime minister and Jay Hill (the Conservative incumbent in Prince George-Peace River) during this election, you would hear them say the global economic downturn will not affect us here in Canada, or the Prince George-Peace River region for that matter," Gidney told reporters.
"Try saying Canadians aren't worried about their homes, their jobs and the economic downturn to the folks hit hard in communities like Prince George, Mackenzie, Chetwynd and Dawson Creek," said Gidney, a political newcomer.
The plan that Gidney laid out includes a four-year, $250-million beetle aid plan and a pledge to hold a national forestry summit to create a strategy to ensure the forest sector's long-term survival.
However, both these initiatives were announced three weeks earlier in Vancouver by Vancouver South Liberal candidate Ujjal Dosanjh.
Both Gidney and Campbell insisted that there was new elements to their Prince George announcement, citing the need to diversify markets for forest products in China, Korea and India. B.C. is expected to export nearly a billion board feet of lumber to China this year, twice as much as the year before. Campbell said there's no reason that can't increase to four or five times that number, an assertion also made recently by Forests Minister Pat Bell.
Gidney said a Liberal government could help foster this Asian export increase by making trips overseas and bringing in potential buyers from overseas. "We also need to get local businesses involved and bring them on these trade trips," he said.
Added Campbell, a former Vancouver mayor: "We're prepared to go into every community. We're prepared to work those communities and the provincial government to see how we can go about realistically helping."
Asked how a Liberal government could have helped the plywood plant be rebuilt, Gidney said he didn't have an immediate answer, but he would look into it. Canfor Corp. decided not to rebuild the plant it said due to a decreasing wood basket and because it made more sense to invest in its other operations.
Hill was not immediately available for comment Monday afternoon. The Conservatives are expected to unveil their economic platform today.
The Conservatives have promised to spend $1 billion in beetle aid over a decade, and have directed some of the $200 million or so spent or pledged to date on economic diversification. The Conservatives contributed a third of the funding to the Prince George Airport runway expansion. The runway expansion -- meant to tap into the air cargo business -- is viewed as a potential economic boost not only to Prince George but the North.
The Conservatives also created a $1-billion fund meant o help one-industry towns facing major downturns, or communities plagued by chronic, high unemployment, or regions hit by layoffs across a range of sectors.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 06 October 2008 )
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