QUESTION PERIOD — Natural Resources
Forestry Sector
December 10, 2019
Honourable senators, my question is also for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. I was listening very carefully to the Throne Speech last week and was very disappointed not to hear anything addressing the very serious state of our forestry sector, especially in British Columbia. There’s not a week that goes by without talk radio and other concerned citizens expressing their growing concern about what is happening. Since the spring there have been over 45 announcements of temporary curtailments or permanent mill closures, impacting thousands of jobs. The bad news just keeps coming.
For example, in September, Teal-Jones announced a shutdown resulting in 300 immediate job losses. And about two weeks ago, Mosaic Forest Management announced an earlier-than-usual winter shutdown, impacting 2,000 jobs. In July, mayors from across the province wrote to the federal government asking for urgent assistance for their communities and guidance on how to access this assistance.
Senator, what response, if any, was provided to the mayors and, more specifically, what will the new Minister of Natural Resources, Seamus O’Regan, do to help forestry workers and their families in British Columbia and other provinces?
I thank the honourable senator for her question. Let me say that I will have to take under advisement the specific question with respect to the specific letter to which she referred. But let me take the occasion to remind the Senate as a whole that this government takes the forestry sector extraordinarily seriously as a priority. That is why the government has placed the efforts it has on softwood lumber and seeking to resolve that dispute, which is a historic and ever-repeating feature of our bilateral trade relationships with the United States. It is also why the Government of Canada has sought to enhance the Asian markets for our timber products and why the Government of Canada sees fit to increase our diversity of trade, particularly in this sector.
I look forward to having Minister Seamus O’Regan speak directly to the forestry sector and, indeed, perhaps when he comes to this chamber for Question Period — if that wasn’t a tweet from him, that should be added — let me say that I will bring this to his attention.
