U.S. Lumber Industry Group Takes Issue With Canadian Community Aid Fund

"When a billion dollars is dispersed through to a sector it obviously raises some concerns," coalition executive director Zoltan van Heyningen told The Canadian Press in an interview Sunday from Washington. "We would just want to make sure that it's not a way of ultimately absolving the financial liabilities or responsibilities of companies which essentially would be a subsidy." In the group's statement, coalition chairman Steve Swanson said: "We strongly suspect money ostensibly earmarked for workers will be used to reduce liabilities of Canadian lumber companies, which would violate the Softwood Lumber Agreement." The group said the 2006 Canada-U.S. Softwood Lumber Agreement prohibits new government subsidies to the Canadian lumber industry. Van Heyningen said the coalition's lawyers are examining the announcement, but he wasn't ready to directly accuse the Canadian government of violating the softwood lumber deal. "We have very serious concerns and we're going to look at it very closely," he said. "But before we would actually come out and say 'You are violating X, Y or Z,' we would want to have a chance to review it very closely," said van Heyningen. http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/headline_news/article.jsp?content=b011313A

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