Written by GORDON HOEKSTRA
Citizen staff
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Wednesday, 03 December 2008 |
Dunkley Lumber is getting nervous that its lobbying efforts to extend a federal government work-share program helping it through the forestry downturn will not produce results.
"I'm very worried that Ottawa is preoccupied with the current political antics. That may not be the case, but I have a fear that a lot of things have just stopped happening," Dunkley Lumber general manager Blair Mayes said Wednesday.
The company south of Prince George cut production last March, moving to a three-day work week at its sawmill, a response to a collapse in the U.S. housing market. The federal work-share program, which pays workers unemployment benefits on the one or two days they are not working, ran out at the end of November for Dunkley. The program runs for 24 weeks with a 12-week extension, and Dunkley has been lobbying, along with other companies, to allow for additional extensions to the program.
Other companies in the region that have taken advantage of the program include the Sinclar Group's mills, including Lakeland in Prince George, and Hampton Affiliates' mills in Burns Lake.
If they are not successful, Dunkley would have to wait 36 weeks to apply for the federal program again.
While Dunkley, like other companies had hoped to ride out the downturn, expect little improvement in 2009.
Mayes said the federal program -- for which he stressed he is not criticizing the government -- just makes sense. Instead of 100 per cent of the workers on unemployment benefits, you can have 100 per cent of the employees working with some component of unemployment benefits, he said.
About 50 of Dunkley Lumber workers are on the work-share program. Other workers, including maintenance workers like millwrights, remain full-time. Dunkley Lumber has retained about 200 full-time workers, down from a high of 275 in 2006, but unlike some other mills, has not taken any wholesale shutdowns.
The idea -- helped by the work-share program -- is to try to maintain their workforce through the forestry downturn.
The company plans to remain on the three-day work week through December, and has asked their employees to bear with them while they wait for an answer from the federal government, hopefully this month. "We're hoping that Santa will come early," said Mayes.
He praised the work of the Prince George area Conservative MPs -- Cariboo-Prince George MP Dick Harris and Prince George-Peace River MP Jay Hill -- as well as support from provincial politicians.
However, efforts to extend the work-share program appear to have been interrupted by the fall federal election and now a political battle underway in Ottawa. A recently formed Liberal-NDP coalition, that has the support of the Bloc Quebecois, wants to bring down the minority Conservative government.
Harris said he and Hill continue to work at getting consideration for an extension. "I'm doing whatever the hell I can to get it, and I know Jay is working very hard on it as well," said Harris.
One of the roadblocks that has come up recently is a concern by federal bureaucrats that an extension could run afoul of the softwood lumber agreement with the U.S., as the extension could be construed as a direct benefit to companies.
A U.S. complaint and fight through the dispute mechanism could be more costly than extending benefits, said Harris.
United Steelworkers local 1-424, which represents sawmill workers in the Northern Interior, also wants the federal government to extend the work-share program.
The union local president, Frank Everitt, said the federal government should be extending the work-share program now instead of "farting around," a reference to the political battles in Ottawa.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 03 December 2008 )
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