Vaughn Palmer: $69m announcement doesn't fully satisfy NDP friends in forestry industry
Credit to Author: Stephen Snelgrove| Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2019 00:49:47 +0000
VICTORIA — When Forests Minister Doug Donaldson announced $69-million worth of support for displaced forest workers Wednesday, he made it sound as if the New Democrats had been on top of things all along.
“We recognize the urgency of the situation,” he told reporters in Prince George, though the NDP had taken its time putting together the package.
Closer to the mark was Prince George Mayor Lyn Hall. In the course of introducing Donaldson, he acknowledged how news of reduced operations and mill closures had been plaguing the forest sector for months.
“We’ve been talking about this for quite some time,” he noted, even as he expressed gratitude for the belated rescue package.
Donaldson himself confirmed the toll since the beginning of the year: four permanent mill closures, 13 indefinite, dozens more reductions in operations, affecting some 3,000 forest workers in all.
Why did it take the NDP so long to come to the rescue of all those workers? asked one reporter.
Donaldson said he’d expected that question. If so, he might have worked out a better rationalization for the delay. He claimed that he’d needed to consult with the affected communities and tailor the package to their specific needs. “Making sure we got it right,” as Donaldson put it.
But I expect even a partial launch of the rescue package would have been welcomed by forest workers who have been wondering for months where their next paycheque is coming from.
Much of the package, $40 million in all, is to fund early retirement for workers aged 55 and older. Not clear how many will benefit, because the government expects industry to share the cost and industry is losing money.
There’s $15 million for short-term employment in wildfire prevention and other community projects, $12 million for retraining and $2 million for an office to help with job placement.
Several of those measures were bruited about last spring. But what seems to have finally galvanized the New Democrats to action were matters of political timing more than anything.
Donaldson lost no time Tuesday calling on Ottawa to “step up” and help. And Week 2 of the federal election campaign was a good time to troll for support from one or more of the federal parties.
The NDP also wanted to head off being criticized for inaction by mayors and councillors when the Union of B.C. Municipalities gathers in Vancouver later this month for its annual convention.
Another bit of timing was the premier’s recent appointment of NDP MLA Ravi Kahlon as parliamentary secretary to Donaldson, with a mandate to get going on community consultations on the plight of forest workers.
“We know more that needs to be done and more will be done,” Kahlon declared last month in an opinion piece in the Victoria Times Colonist. “Following up on the foundation that Minister Donaldson has already laid, and to support the very hard work he has already done behind the scenes, I will be hitting the road to talk to families and communities.
“I’m focused. I’m determined. I will be seeking solutions so that workers can continue supporting their families,” he added, leaving one to wonder what precisely Donaldson had been doing behind the scenes all those months.
Kahlon was on the platform in Prince George on Tuesday, graciously accepting Donaldson’s praise for bringing his focus and determination to the consultations.
Also present was Labour Minister Harry Bains. Apart from the obvious interest of the labour minister in what he characterized as “historic job losses,” two other factors helped account for his presence. One was the recent announcement of an indefinite shutdown affecting hundreds of jobs with the Teal Jones Group, which is based in Surrey.
So is Bains. So are five other NDP MLAs. While many of the year’s announcements affected forest operations in B.C. Liberal ridings, the Teal Jones news hit those six New Democrats where they live.
Bains also has a personal perspective on forest workers, having, as he put it Tuesday, started his working life in sawmills. He long served as an official in the IWA, mostly in the years before its 2004 merger with the Steelworkers.
One of the more telling responses to Tuesday’s announcement came from the United Steelworkers IWA, which bankrolled the NDP to the tune of $750,000 in the last provincial election. Welcoming the assistance package was Stephen Hunt, the union’s director for Western Canada. “But permanent solutions for workers, families and communities throughout the entire province are needed,” he added.
Also adding a “but”, was Jeff Bromley, chairman of the union’s wood council. “This announcement helps right now, but we cannot give up on the industry in the future,” he said. “Unless there are significant changes to forest policy the crisis will continue.”
The union wants the NDP to appoint a jobs protection commissioner and restore the appurtenancy rule that directed harvested timber to mills in adjacent communities. A leader of one of the union locals has called for reductions in stumpage, the levy government collects on harvested timber.
But Donaldson said the NDP has “no plans to reduce stumpage at this time,” believing it would risk further trade action against B.C. softwood lumber in the U.S. Nor did he endorse any of the other proposals.
In short, the announcement didn’t fully satisfy the NDP’s friends in the industry, never mind its critics. But that is a topic for another day.