Global economic crisis may doom forestry industry: union head
Calls made for federal government to step in before sector collapses
Last Updated: Monday, October 27, 2008 | 12:04 PM ET
CBC News
The current economic turbulence may cause the death of Canada's forestry industry, and the federal government is doing nothing to prevent it, says the head of one of the country's largest private-sector unions.
"Our union alone has lost 20,000 members in the forest sector — many communities devastated, the economy is freefalling," Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP), said at the union's national convention in Montreal.
There have been problems in the softwood lumber industry for years, but there has been a healthy market for Canadian boards up until a few years ago.
Earlier this month, Coles said Canada’s forest industry is the major victim of the U.S. mortgage crisis affecting housing sales.
In the first six months of 2008, the forestry industry lost $1.2 billion, according to CEP. For next year, several companies will have to refinance large debts, including Montreal-based AbitibiBowater and Richmond, B.C.-based Catalyst Paper.
The global economic crisis, driven by falling markets stemming from the bust in the housing market in the U.S., should propel the Canadian government to step in before the forestry industry collapses, Coles said Sunday.
"I think that they've [the federal government] totally, unequivocally, mismanaged the economic system of Canada."
Other representatives of the union, one of the largest representing forestry workers in Canada, also expressed fears about how the economic woes may devastate the forestry industry.
"The downward spiral in the U.S. has hit hard here," said Gaetan Menard, a CEP board member. "The collapse of the construction in the United States is making our sawmills all shut down. They are all shut down right now; no one is working anymore."
The 1,500 delegates, representing 150,000 union members, will also address these resolutions at the conference that ends Thursday:
- Calls for hard targets on greenhouse gas emissions.
- The re-establishment of public ownership in the oil and gas sector.
- Limits to foreign ownership of Canada's telecommunications and broadcasting sectors.
