Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to speak to the closure of the Crofton mill on Vancouver Island and what it exposes about the state of Canada's forest sector and the Liberal government's failure to act when forestry workers need help most.
Today, February 3, the first round of layoffs at Crofton takes effect. Workers are emptying lockers and families are losing paycheques. Mortgages, rent and grocery bills do not pause while the government deliberates. Communities are being told to wait. I am raising this tonight because Geoff Dawe, the president of Public and Private Workers of Canada, contacted me directly. His concern was simple and alarming. Workers losing their good-paying union jobs cannot access the federal supports that they were promised and deserve. Crofton is not in my riding, but when hundreds of Vancouver Island workers are thrown out of work overnight, riding boundaries mean nothing. It demands a national response.
I reached out immediately to three federal departments about removing barriers to workers' support, barriers that simply should never have existed in the first place. I acknowledge those ministers and officials who responded, but let me be clear: Workers should not need an MP running interference just to get help when mills close.
I also want to recognize British Columbia's Minister of Forests, Ravi Parmar, who is working around the clock, North Cowichan Mayor Rob Douglas and Duncan Mayor Michelle Staples, who are doing everything they can on the ground, despite the absence of a serious, coordinated federal response. When governments fail to intervene during a sectoral crisis, the outcome is predictable: economic shock, mental health crisis, population loss and entire communities shaken to the core. This moment is a real-time stress test for employment insurance, labour market development funding, softwood lumber relief and federal-provincial coordination. Right now, the system is failing that test.
Let me explain. The government announced $1.2 billion for the forest sector. Workers quickly discovered that only $50 million of that is actually for them. That is less than 5%, not for income replacement, not for retraining and not for communities trying to survive closures. The $50 million for tens of thousands of workers is not support; it is neglect. In British Columbia alone, nearly 50,000 direct forestry jobs are at risk. These are mill workers, fallers, truck drivers, equipment operators, indigenous workers and workers in single-industry towns.
Forestry has sustained generations of families in my home province. British Columbia produces roughly 45% of Canada's softwood lumber exports, yet under the $450-million labour market adjustment envelope, British Columbia receives only about $70 million, while Ontario receives roughly $230 million. That is indefensible. It is not proportional and it abandons forestry communities in British Columbia.
When the auto sector faces crisis, Ottawa intervenes. When steel faces unfair trade action, Ottawa steps in, and rightly so. Forestry workers are asking, though, why they are treated as expendable. What is missing is a new, dedicated round of forestry relief, including softwood lumber supports, that reflects the scale of this crisis and treats British Columbia fairly. Many affected workers are between 55 and 64 years old, too old for retraining and too young for retirement. Employment insurance replaces just 60% of income, and severance clawbacks block access to support entirely.
Workers are not asking for charity; they are simply asking for action. They are asking for employment insurance replacement to be raised to at least 80% and for EI duration to be extended to 104 weeks. They are asking for no waiting periods and no severance clawbacks. They are asking for bridge-to-retirement supports for workers aged 55 to 64. They are asking for guaranteed apprenticeship completion and long-term mental health supports. They are asking for mobility assistance where local jobs do not exist.
Crofton is the test. Layoffs are happening today, and the excuses will not pay the rent. Delay is not neutral; it is harm. The government must act, and it must act now.