2009-06-03
08:48:57
Forestry workers in Dryden blocked the Trans-Canada Highway yesterday to highlight concerns about their battered industry.
About three dozen demonstrators stopped cars on the highway, which runs through Dryden, for about 20 minutes over the lunch hour.
The workers want federal support, saying Prime Minister Stephen Harper has done nothing for the forestry sector while offering billions of tax dollars to help the auto industry.
The demonstration in Dryden comes as thousands of forestry workers marched through the streets of Ottawa, sharing the same concerns as the protesters in northwestern Ontario.
In the Commons, N-D-P Leader Jack Layton offered some solutions to the industry's problems to the prime minister.
"What we need is some loan guarantees, said Layton. "What we need is a strategy to create markets in this sector. What we need is some fair trade for a change. What we need is to stop raw logs from going across the border and creating jobs down in the United States. When will we see some real action from the government?"
Prime Minister Harper responded by criticizing the New Democrats for voting against past measures to help the forestry industry.
"Everybody knows that the difficulties in the forestry industry are due to the dramatic decline in demand we have seen in the American market. Yet, when the government brought in the softwood lumber agreement that gave us access to that market and $4.5 billion back from the litigation, the NDP voted against it. When we brought in measures to help workers and communities affected by layoffs in the forestry sector, the NDP voted against those. When we brought in measures to increase financing for EDC and BDC to help this sector, the NDP voted against them."
