Mr. Speaker, I have a personal connection to the forestry sector. My great-grandfather was a papermaker at a mill in Ocean Falls on the central coast of British Columbia. That town was a bustling community of 4,000 people. It produced Olympic swimmers back in the day. Today, that community has 75 people in it. I do not want to see that happen to Port Alberni. I do not want to see that happen to any more coastal communities, especially communities in my riding.
We have an opportunity to invest in innovation and technology. In our campaign we talked about the NDP having invested $40 million in the forestry sector to do just that.
I hope the government will be able to see the opportunity that we have with our forest sector and the opportunity to keep jobs in British Columbia, in Canada, instead of shipping raw logs out of our country and shipping jobs out of our country. This has an enormous impact on our communities.
The socio-economic indicators in Alberni Valley may show an unemployment rate of 10% but it does not truly reflect the true unemployment rate. The social assistance rate is 253% above the provincial average of British Columbia, and that is not okay. We need to do better. We have an opportunity. We have a thriving, beautiful opportunity to invest in our forestry sector. We are counting on the federal government and the provincial government of British Columbia to work together in collaboration with business to change direction in the forestry sector and make us more competitive so that we can make our mark on the world. This is our opportunity to do just that.