On January 10, at a lumber mill in New Brunswick, Prime Minister Harper announced his government would create a $1–billion “community development trust” which one-industry towns hurt by plant shutdown could tap into for funds to re-train workers, invest in research and development, or attract new industry.
But Harper tied the billion-dollar aid package to support in the House of Commons for his government’s budget. The message being: If you don’t vote for the budget — and to keep the Conservative government afloat — you’ll be voting against support for laid-off workers and struggling rural communities.
In fact, as recently as Jan. 21, speaking to reporters in Prince Albert, Sask. — that city’s largest private sector employer, Weyerhaeuser, shut its pulp-and-paper plant there last spring — Harper insisted that the aid package would be part of the budget: “About this money being conditional on adoption of a budget — of course it's conditional on adoption of a budget! All new spending is conditional on adoption of a budget; always, in every single jurisdiction in this country.”
His opponents howled that Harper was engaging in politicial blackmail. The provinces, too — notably Ontario Premier McGuinty and Quebec Premier Charest — criticized Harper, saying that if he was serious about helping towns decimated by shutdowns, he would disconnect the aid package from the budget.
Today the government did that and Government House Leader Peter Van Loan stood in front of reporters trying hard to spin the government line: It wasn’t criticism of the government that changed their mind, it was enthusiasm for the government’s good idea!
“We thought there was such a positive response, from the provinces, from people across Canada to what we had proposed,” Van Loan said.
Incidentally, here are some numbers, provided by Natural Resources Canada, about the downturn in the forestry sector in 2007:
Across the country, a total of 112 paper or lumber mills shut down in 2007. NRCAN calls this an “instance of capacity closure”. Here’s the regional breakdown for such “capacity closure”:
- BC: 32 instances of capacity closure, 2807 layoffs
- Prairies: 13 instances of capacity closure, 738 layoffs
- Ontario: 19 instances of capacity closure, 2560 layoffs
- Quebec: 38 instances of capacity closure, 3683 layoffs
- Atlantic: 10 instances of capacity closure, 2328 layoffs