Thank you for the opportunity to address this committee.
The high Canadian dollar has added more fuel to the crisis situation of the forest industry in northern Ontario and is causing uncertainty and fear in all small communities across the north.
The entire economy of northern Ontario and the very fabric of our lives are in jeopardy. Although I represent the town of Hearst, this presentation could easily be made by Longlac, Smooth Rock Falls, Wawa, White River, Atikokan, Nippigan—northern Ontario communities that have permanently lost their single industries—or by Kapuskasing, Opasatika, Cochrane, Dryden, Kenora, Timmins, Kirkland Lake—who are currently struggling with significant cutbacks and massive layoffs in the forestry sector.
My municipality is 500 kilometres from Thunder Bay, Sudbury and Sault Ste Marie, 600 kilometres from North Bay and 955 kilometres from Ottawa and Toronto. Much of northern Ontario above the 50 th parallel is populated by First Nations, who live in isolated communities that generally are only accessible by air, although one, Moosonee, can be reached by rail.
Hearst has a population of 5,620 people, but my community serves a much larger geographical area of 10,000 people. Northern Ontario is boreal forest, and it holds most of Ontario's natural resource wealth. With only 7% of Ontario's population, we are exporters because we have to be.
Over the years, local operations have consolidated or closed. Hearst has lost four major mills, and two of the three newer operations now belong to North American conglomerates. The industry has always faced the challenges of surviving to the "boom and bust" cycles that are typical of our northern natural-resource-based economy.
This is no longer the case. The global market situation has made the crisis that we are facing today much more serious. This unprecedented challenge cannot be met without government intervention. The forest industry is our livelihood, and the driving force behind our local economy.
In the immediate Hearst area, three manufacturers—Columbia Forest Products, Tembec Industries Inc. and Lecours Lumber—employed 765 people directly in 2006, and another 171 indirectly in secondary support and service industries. In my community of 5,620 people, the forestry sector accounts is clearly the major employer and accounts for at least 43% of the labour force.
In Hearst, Tri-Cept (Hearst) Inc. permanently closed its planing mill with a loss of 40 jobs in 2006. Columbia Forest Products closed their particle board plant in Hearst at the beginning of this month, with a loss of 83 jobs. On November 9, 2007, 1200 layoffs were announced by Buchanan Forest Products across all their operations in both northeastern and northwestern Ontario, Bowater in Dryden and NorBoard in Cochrane.
Countless families are affected, not because they work in the industry, but because they supply goods and services to the forest industry and to its employees. Older workers in the mill in Hearst are poorly educated. They have not even finished high school and are now facing layoffs with no education.
Real estate values, both residential and commercial, are collapsing because the large plants are closing. This is what we are facing. Our young people are moving away. They are leaving town in order to be able to find a full-time job.
Northern Ontario industries, and, with them, our northern Ontario communities, are facing our most serious challenges. My neighbour here I think addressed the role now played by the issue of the dollar.
Electricity costs are very high in local mills and they have increased by 10-12% in recent years. Fuel costs have soared, but the increase cannot be passed on to the consumer because the market will not bear added costs.
As for transportation, the national rail infrastructure in northern Ontario is in poor condition, though it is vital to move our products to market. The Ontario Northland Railway closed its spur line to Lecours Limber, but the provincial government intervened to save the railway, and the jobs on the First Nations reserves.
Remote First Nations in the far north have no access to our northern communities. Some members of First Nations have no education and no access to services that can provide it so that they can play a full role in our society. The government should ensure that they have access. The far north has resources and the government should open it up so that the resources can save the north as a whole. The resources are there, and the First Nations want to work. Let us get to work together.
Thank you.