Forest Announcement Reaction

The Province’s plan to help the forest industry and Northern
communities has received a cool response from the Opposition parties.
NDP Leader Howard Hampton says the Province is still doing nothing to
help Mills deal with sky-rocketing energy costs and believes $28-million a
year for access roads is not nearly enough.
Conservative Leader John Tory says there is little in terms of immediate
support.
Tory also wonders why the Government will spend $400-million instantly
on a Casino for Windsor and only $330-million for the forest industry.
A good start but still a lot of work to be done.
That was the general reaction from many Thursday.
One person expressing early concern is Dryden Mayor Anne Krassilowsky.
She says $28-million annually for the forest access roads program
won’t make much difference in the end.
Krassilowsky says she will be on the phone with Kenora MP Roger Valley
to discuss the Feds role in the forest industry.
Weyerhaeuser Dryden Mill Manager Norm Bush is also concerned about the
roads portion of the package.
The President of the Northern Ontario Municipal Association called it
the beginning of the journey and promised to keep the pressure up.
The Ontario Vice-President of the Communications, Energy and
Paperworkers Union says the Province didn’t go far enough with its forestry
aid package.
Cec Makowski says the $150-million made available for capital
funding is a drop in the bucket to what the industry needs.
Makowski is asking for a full debate in the Ontario Legislature about
the future of the sector.
The Ontario Forest Industries Association says the Province is going
to have to do more to bring down the cost of doing business in the North.
President Jamie Lim says while Thursday’s forest aid package was a
good start, but it only reduced the cost of delivering wood to local Mills
by about a dollar per cubic meter.
She says that still leaves Ontario as one of the highest cost
jurisdictions in the world.
Lim says their target is to reduce the cost of wood delivery by
another 20-dollars per cubic meter.