Written by GORDON HOEKSTRA
Citizen staff
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Wednesday, 08 October 2008 |
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FORT NELSONCONSERVATIVESWALL STREETPRINCE RUPERTUSPRINCE GEORGE CHAMBER
Conservative candidate Jay Hill said his government has already been spending money to promote trade with the Pacific Rim by putting money into its Gateway strategy. That helped build the container handling facility in Prince Rupert, which in turn spawned an intermodal handling facility in Prince George, he said.
Hill and the other candidates were responding to questions posed to them at a forum organized by the Prince George Chamber of Commerce and the B.C. Northern Real Estate Board.
Hill noted that his party has already set aside $127.5 million to address the long-term competitiveness of the forest industry. "These measures will help begin to create the environment necessary for Canada's industry to compete on a global scale," said Hill, who has won his riding handily five consecutive times.
The Conservatives held a minority government for 2-12 years before calling an election for next Tuesday.
Hill said he was encouraged that nearly 1 billion board feet of lumber is expected to be shipped to China this year from British Columbia, double the amount in 2007.
The U.S. is by far the biggest single market for the region's lumber products, accounting for more than 5 billion of shipments in some years.
In 2007, the U.S. export figure dropped to 3.5 billion, largely a result of a collapse in the U.S. housing market. That collapse has been exacerbated by a mortgage crisis in the U.S. which has spilled over into the financial markets in Wall Street.
Many lumber and panel mills in northern B.C. that relied on the U.S. market have curtailed production or shut down, putting thousands of workers off the job. On Wednesday afternoon, Canfor announced another closure -- the indefinite shutdown of its plywood plant in Fort Nelson (see page 3).
Economic diversification of both products and markets has been a key issue for communities hit hard by the forestry downturn.
Liberal candidate Lindsay Digney reiterated his party's position that they would hold a national forestry to hammer out a strategy for the long-term survival of the forest sector. He said the Liberals would support trade missions overseas.
He said he would like see sawmills that can cut metric push into European markets. He said that as well as opportunities in China, he believes that Canada should also push into Indian, South Korea and Japan.
He said other resources like coal and sulphur need to be supported, and there is also a need to support airports.
NDP candidate Betty Bekkering said the key is to keep the country's natural resources at home. She pointed the finger at raw log exports, saying the NDP would ban the exports in an effort to keep jobs in Canada. "We should be looking for markets for finished products, and keeping (the manufacture of) those finished products here in our communities," said Bekkering.
That protection should extend to the province's water as well, which Bekkering said was going to be the "next oil."
Green Party candidate Hilary Crowley stressed that resources should not only be counted in dollars, but also the environmental and social impacts of their depletion.
She agreed that B.C.'s natural resource sector needs to diversify its markets outside of the U.S.
Crowley said the Green Party thinks it will be able open up markets in Europe for the forest sector for companies that achieve certification from the Forest Stewardship Council, the only forest practices standard that has backing from environmental groups.
To promote that, the Green Party would give a five-year tax exemption to forest companies that achieve the Forest Stewardship Council certification.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 08 October 2008 )
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