Mr. Speaker, those are pretty strong accusations.
As I said earlier today, we are saddened by the job losses that have taken place across this country. We are saddened by communities that are under the gun because of those job losses. But mostly, I am saddened when we see people trying to make political gain out of other people's misery. I would suggest that is what is happening again here tonight with the member opposite because I have heard nothing from her over the last year on this file.
I have been on the natural resources committee for a year and a half and I never heard a complaint from her until the last month when she began to think she can start to get some political mileage out of this issue. We heard nothing from her last year when the committee did its work and came up with a unanimous report which contained a number of the issues that the government has adopted in the economic plan of 2009. We heard nothing from her this spring when we were asking for budget input. She said nothing.
I should point out that the community development trust, last year, delivered $120 million to British Columbia for its forestry sector. That is a significant amount of money. Where was she when we were travelling the country this spring? We heard nothing from her on this issue. We are not dealing with this file because of politics; we are dealing with this file because we care.
We have put forward a plan and I am glad to see that she and her party are going to support it, but rather than criticizing us, perhaps she should be promoting what it is we are doing.
I want to talk a bit about the integrated approach that we have toward the forestry sector. It involves workers, technology, markets, companies and communities. I do not think I have enough time this afternoon go to through all of those things, but I will try to touch on a few of them.
In terms of companies, we have made some significant differences. We are providing access to credit. If people had been listening earlier to the debate, they would have heard some of the details. Last year in EDC's portfolio $14 billion out of $80 billion was targeted toward the forestry sector. We have improved work share programs in an attempt to give companies a chance to stabilize themselves and their workforces. We have accelerated the CCA, the capital cost allowance, which was asked of us.
In terms of communities, we provided $1 billion to the community development trust last year. As I mentioned, $120 million of that went to British Columbia. This year there is another $1 billion in the community adjustment fund to help communities deal with the economic situation they find themselves in. We have delivered, as she pointed out, $200 million to deal with the pine beetle situation in communities that have been so devastated by it.
In terms of workers, we provided $8.3 billion for skills training and transition. That includes things like the work share program and the extension of EI benefits. We travelled across this country and asked people what they wanted. One of things they told us they wanted was EI benefits extended. This government listened to those consultations and put that in place.
We have gone around the world trying to develop markets. We put $50 million this year into market development. We put money into future technology. I do not have time to talk about all of that, but one of the great things in place is forest products innovations and the difference that it is making in new technologies.
We have consulted with our stakeholders and listened to the concerns of Canadians. The budget initiatives that we are planning will lead to a strong and competitive tomorrow while looking out for the needs of citizens today.