Mr. Speaker, last week was a devastating one for forestry workers and their families on Vancouver Island. Just outside Port McNeill, the Atli Chip plant announced it would be permanently closed, and curtailments were announced at the Ladysmith and Saltair locations of the iconic Chemainus sawmill, where my grandfather worked for 30 years. These were good-paying jobs, the type of jobs that built communities up and down Vancouver Island and right across B.C.
The government promised to stand with these workers, to have their backs. Instead, mills keep closing and workers are being laid off. When will the government's actions and results finally live up to its rhetoric and its words?