Mr. Speaker, in budget 2006, the Conservative government announced $400 million to address the long- and short-term impacts of the pine beetle infestation; to strengthen the long-term competitiveness of the forestry sector in Canada; to support worker adjustment for the changing economy and to build new economies; to expand market opportunities for Canadian forest products; and to identify and address essential skills and adjustments for older and laid-off forestry workers.
Yet, in the same budget year, 2006-07, none of the $400 million was spent. In 2007-08, $112 million was spent. In 2008-09, $74 million was spent. The total spent is about $185 million out of a promised package of $400 million. Since then, things have worsened in the forestry industry not only in B.C. but across Canada.
In the period 2006 to 2008, the forestry industry suffered because of a drop in the U.S. housing construction market. It has suffered because of the poor softwood lumber agreement with the U.S. The Conservative government left $1 billion on the table out of a $4 billion deal negotiated by a Liberal government. The price of lumber dropped 40%. Two hundred and seven mills were closed across Canada and 38,000 jobs were lost in that time.
Pulp and paper companies began to lose money and prices for pulp and paper fell by 20%, during which time the money still was not flowing. Canadian companies lost $529 million U.S. in the final quarter of 2008. Costs and charges came to $292 million in 2008 compared to $30 million the year before. The government sat on its hands and spent only $180 million over two years. A year after the money was promised, nothing had flowed.
Three hundred rural and remote communities in Canada depend on forestry. In those towns, workers have suffered. I can speak specifically to B.C. towns that depended on forestry, such as Mackenzie, where people began to lose their jobs. Fifteen hundred forestry workers depended on that mill for their jobs. When the mill closed, 4,500 people who were depending on getting that money had to wait for it. In the meantime, the government still did nothing. First nations communities in the west that rely on forestry waited for the pledged money. They worried about how to harvest dead wood killed by the pine beetle. They worried about fires in summer. They waited for that economic help, but it did not come.
In the meantime, insult was added to injury. The same B.C. communities of aboriginal people waited for two years to meet with the former minister of natural resources, who himself is a British Columbian. With tens of thousands of lies, $1 billion in infrastructure under threat from the pine beetle and the enhanced threat of wildfires, the chief of the B.C. first nations community said, “Our community needs this funding now”, yet the long-awaited stimulus package did not come until a year later.
What bothers me is the callous disregard shown to the real people whose lives are being damaged and the broken promise, the smoke and mirrors of putting money into a budget only to watch it disappear into some mysterious black hole. That is what galls me the most. The government seems to toy with the lives of people and does not care.