Media Release for September 28

Forestry and Job Training Important for Renfrew County

PEMBROKE, September 28: The New Democrat candidate in Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke, Sue McSheffrey, today blasted Stephen Harper’s treatment of forestry communities and called for federal action to address the jobs crisis in rural areas like hers. Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke has been badly hit by a massive slowdown in lumber sales.

“It is hard to get a handle on the number of forestry job losses in Renfrew Nipissing Pembroke” she said “but we know it must be in the hundreds with 100 for sure at Commonwealth Plywood.”

More than 400,000 good manufacturing jobs have been lost in Canada since 2002.

In the wake of the 2007 softwood agreement with the United States, “Harper then broke his promise to provide loan guarantees for struggling producers, and to find ways to help support forestry communities,” said Sue McSheffrey. She said hundreds of local workers have lost their jobs in forestry due to the high Canadian dollar, international competition set up by corporate trade deals, and the US economic slowdown.

“Instead of helping local workers, Stephen Harper and Cheryl Gallant gave a $50 billion tax gift to profitable banks and oil companies that don’t need the help," added the New Democrat candidate. "The people that do need help—like accessible training to get into new careers—get nothing under Harper’s plan.”

McSheffrey set out steps she would take, with Jack Layton as Prime Minister, to restore and revitalize the forestry industry in Canada and help displaced workers get into new trades. She said she will start by ending “Harper’s sell-out 2007 softwood lumber agreement” and working to open U.S. markets based on fair trade in lumber.

To protect local workers and their families hurt by the deal, McSheffrey said a new plan for training is needed that will reverse “decades of neglect by Stephen Harper and his predecessors.”

The New Democrats will commit $100 million yearly for an expanded Canadian Training and Apprenticeship Tax Credit, said McSheffrey.

A big part of the plan is to reform employment insurance for workers and tradespeople to provide greater access to full and part-time training. “The Conservatives and their predecessors made EI almost impossible to get for the people who need it most,” she said. The New Democrat’s plan would create more opportunities for training by broadening eligibility for EI training benefits.

“In the last federal budget the Conservatives created the Canadian Employment Insurance Financing Board, and in the process tried to make $54 billion dollars of surplus contributions to the EI fund disappear,” says McSheffrey. The Board has a $3 billion surplus, and is banking an additional $1 billion a year. “This is workers’ money that should have been invested in training, apprenticeships and support for the unemployed.”

The NDP would waive the waiting period for employment insurance for trades people entering courses. Any additional cost associated this initiative can be comfortably funded within the current $1 billion surplus being generated by the EI program, said McSheffrey.

The NDP also plans to enhance the Canadian Training and Apprenticeship Tax Credit, which pays businesses a subsidy for salaries and wages of workers in training and apprenticeship programs.

“You deserve a Member of Parliament who will make jobs for working people in Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke a priority,” said McSheffrey. “I will put you and your family first.”

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