Written by GORDON HOEKSTRA
Citizen staff
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Tuesday, 02 December 2008 |
The possibility of a Liberal-NDP coalition government replacing the Conservative minority in Ottawa is not being received enthusiastically by the business community in Prince George.
"I don't think the business community is supporting anything that is happening at the moment there," Prince George Chamber of Commerce president Albert Koehler said Tuesday.
"The general agreement is that this is not necessary now," said Koehler, who heads a group that represents close to 1,000 businesses in the city.
The Northern Interior has been facing a forestry downturn for the past 18 months, which has impacted Prince George as well. The city's more diversified economy has helped it weather the economic storm better than strictly forest-based communities like Fort St. James and Mackenzie, but it has still seen hundreds of job losses. And the more-recent current global financial turmoil has increased economic uncertainty.
Still, the general business consensus -- including within the forest sector -- is that government stability is a priority in times of economic turmoil. "This is not the time to be flipping government back and forth," said Central Interior Logging Association manager Rick Publicover.
He noted that Prince George's two Conservative MPs -- Cariboo-Prince George MP Dick Harris and Prince George-Peace River MP Jay Hill -- are known for listening to local concerns and working well with provincial MLAs.
Publicover said the Conservatives have partnered on projects -- like the $42-million twinning of the Simon Fraser Bridge -- that helps build needed infrastructure to drive the economy forward. That will help with the emerging bioenergy, mining and oil and gas sectors, he said. "Losing that voice in Ottawa, that would be a huge blow to the forest sector," said Publicover.
The support for the Conservatives -- even though local business leaders say Prime Minister Harper's ploy to cut funding to political parties wasn't smart -- is not necessarily surprising in an area that has seen the Conservatives MPs elected five times consecutively in the two Prince George ridings. Harris was elected with 55 per cent of the vote, while Hill received 63 per cent in the election six weeks ago.
In a Citizen online poll, the majority of respondents continue to be against a Liberal-NDP coalition government. Tuesday afternoon, 64 per cent were against and 36 per cent in favour.
Support for the Conservatives is by no means unanimous.
Fort St. James' resident Rick Montemurro, who helped organize a rally this summer to bring attention to his community's forestry woes, wants to see a Liberal-NDP coalition government. He says the coalition's $30-billion stimulus package -- that is supposed to provide help to the auto and forest sectors -- means more relief and attention in hard-hit communities like Fort St. James.
The community, like Mackenzie, are among the hardest hit by the forestry downturn. Fort St. James has seen two sawmills shut down and other operations reduce shifts.
Montemurro, who owns a computer business, said he is not impressed with Harper's belt-tightening notions in the midst of an economic downturn.
United Steelworkers local 1-424 president Frank Everitt added that the political machinations in Ottawa are not helping the hard-hit forest industry. But he said that a Liberal-NDP coalition would be more palatable than another election. Everitt said what really needs to happen is for the federal government to start providing more help to workers -- by extending employment benefits and increasing work-share programs for sawmill workers on reduced work weeks.
About 2,200 of the Northern Interior local's forestry workers are off the job or are working elsewhere now.
UNBC political scientist Gary Wilson says there could be positive and negative impacts for the North if a Liberal-NDP coalition takes over.
The positive -- although the details aren't known -- is that there may be help for the forest sector in the coalition stimulus package. The negative is that the two Prince George MPs, at least in the short-term, will be on the outside of government, said Wilson.
In general, however, a coalition government will not help the Liberals in Western Canada where their marriage with the Bloc, which is likely to be viewed as more appeasement to Quebec, will contribute to the existing sense of Western alienation, said Wilson.
There's plenty of blame to go around, however, as the political fighting comes during the worst economic crisis since the depression, observed Wilson. "People are just not impressed."
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 02 December 2008 )
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