September 19, 2011

Brian Dougherty and the NDP will grow forestry, agriculture and energy jobs

PETAWAWA: Ontario’s New Democrats have plans protect and create jobs through positive, practical solutions for the forest industry and agriculture.

“With the recent unveiling of platform planks on forestry, energy and the environment, the Ontario NDP is offering voters a plan that will provide the province’s forestry sector with vital support it needs as well as a boost to area farmers,” said Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke candidate Brian Dougherty.

Ontario has shed over 40,000 forestry jobs, and current wood reallocation processes have caused more than 30 mills to shut down, affecting entire communities. In Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke, many mills have closed, while most have greatly cut back employment, leaving millhands and bush crews idle.

“People in the forest industry tell us they’re up against impossible competition internationally due to corporate trade deals, as well as the global economic crisis,” said Dougherty, who met to discuss issues with former Renfrew County head forester Robin Cunningham on Saturday this week while in the area. “The NDP offers new thinking and affordable ideas to combat the crises we face in jobs and forestry.”

To meet Ontario’s energy needs in an environmentally beneficial way, the NDP will open new markets for wood products and energy by investing in biomass electrical generation and other forms of cogeneration.

“The NDP plans to call for proposals for new biomass energy generation that can utilize waste from mills and forest operations as well as agricultural residue,” said Dougherty. “This is just the kind of thinking needed to get our mills going again and offer hope to local people. The mills need a market for their waste in order to operate at all.”

He said the Liberals “messed up” the renewable energy file by giving all the opportunity to huge corporations and totally overlooking communities and rural needs. “An NDP government would call for proposals to locate large-scale biomass generators near transmission corridors.”

Dougherty said that instead of giving all the renewal energy business to giant corporations, as the Liberals have done, “We would want at least 50 percent to be community non-profits. Andrea Horwath and the NDP are committed to measures that would strongly encourage biomass energy generation under community direction, keeping the money in our community.”

The NDP plans to see Ontario promote and encourage increased uses of wood at all levels. “Amendments to building codes, for example, could permit mid-rise wood construction would provide jobs and showcase Ontario as a world leader in the use of forest products,” Dougherty said.

In addition, large and mid-size companies will be made eligible for an industrial hydro rate so that Ontario’s rates are competitive with neighbouring jurisdictions. Ontario’s New Democrats also plan to remove uncertainty in the forest industry by taking away the government’s authority to cancel wood allocation licences, and give communities more control over allocations.

Through the Buy Ontario plan, Ontario’s New Democrats will make it the law that Ontario’s money is spent here. Every year our government spends billions of dollars of our money on everything from transit cars to computers to meat and vegetables. “It only makes sense to spend as much of that money as possible here in Ontario to create good jobs,” said Dougherty.

“These initiatives will strengthen our local industries, create jobs and give communities the chance to benefit from their resources,” said Dougherty.

Brian Dougherty discusses the NDP’s plan for forestry jobs with Pembroke area forester Robin Cunningham.

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