Ontario Calls U.S.-Canada Lumber Deal 'unacceptable;' Warns Of More Job Losses

If we Canadians had balls we would add an export tax onto all energy exports to the US: oil, gas, electricity, to make up for the losses on lumber exports.

I believe that this has been ruled as a legal step already; perhaps a reader can point out which body made that ruling.

H.F. Wolff

This type of internal squabbling between Canadian provinces is exactly what the people in the US would love and take advantage of. Remember that they also have many disagreements between the States, and as a result of that have become better masters in manipulating thah Canadians.

What was the reason for changing the market shares in the new deal? Was it perhaps a shifting demand within the US?

It does not make sense to transport softwoord lumber from BC to Florida, and it does not make sense to transport it from Northern Ontario to California.

Anybody with an explanation?

Certainly doesn't qualify as 'free' now does it. Look for the Conservatives to sell us out.

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If there was ever a time for Canadians to become pushy - now is the time - for time is running out on this nation called Canada.

David Ramsey is refusing to see the bigger picture. CANFOR comes out just fine under this deal.

David Emerson our minister of international trade and former CEO of CANFOR and his buddies in the Jim Pattison group (owns 19 % of Canfor) and all their BC buddies ,(oh yes and premier Gordon Campbell.) all get a lot richer this way.

Any resolution to the Softwood Lumber Dispute must necessarily include revitalization of all those dying little towns in the Canadian hinterland, as well as some sort of reinstatement of the estimated 30 - 50,000 jobs lost across this nation. Otherwise it is not a resolution at all. For those who think that the forestry companies actually paid the tariffs and are entitled to the $5-6 billion in whole or in part, think again. The wages NOT paid to those forestry workers just about covers this, and the dividends for the shareholders just keep on coming.

Weyerhauser Canada selling raw logs to Weyerhauser USA is not a resolution. It is a ripoff.

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RickW

Word just in - there is really no such thing as free trade with America. They will have quotas and they are keeping $1 billion dollars of ours.

Nice deal Harper - way to sell us out. Harper's latest appeasement costs us $1 billion dollars.

Up next - Iran or missile defence - take your pick, as the same sellout/appeasement mantra will continue unabated.

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If there was ever a time for Canadians to become pushy - now is the time - for time is running out on this nation called Canada.

It's a done deal. Harper could have stayed home and have Bush call him once the bargain was set. The Americans get 1 billion for their time and trouble. (I imagine they wish they had stole more.) American lumbermen get all the raw logs they wanted and will remain doing so. The mills in Canada have closed permanently and the processed wood just won't be. One would think the American negotiators sweated big time on this one. Belly laughter makes one have to urinate and worse if you had to keep a straight face.

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Expect little from life and get more from it.

I never was an admirer of former IWA president Jack Munro, as I considered him a blustering, self glorifying dope, but I'll never forget an interview he had with the late Jack Webster on BCTV, about 20 years ago, when this whole mess started. That time he was right and is still right, more than ever.

According to Munro at the time, things were going OK in the lumber industry, people were working, getting good wages and exporting their products to the USA etc. without any problems. Then, about 25 years ago the big companies started getting bigger and more greedy and began large scale investments into automation. The result was an ever dwindling labour force and the dumped products called the attention of the Americans, by cutting into their domestic industry in an increasing way.

The situation is worse now with incredible capital investments in huge, automated mills, designed and built for
a lifespan of 10 years, about the time the industry needs to process the devastation caused by the pine beetles, and recoup the investments, and then the "investors" will pack up and bugger off, leaving the interior of BC dead.

Even a few years ago the industry boasted an employment number of 90,000, their latest boast is now 60,000. Probably half the number of what it was 25 years ago, if not less. At the same time the capital investment per job increased to up to 60-70 wage years per worker with multiplied resource use.
Not to mention the present government's permission for the export of raw logs, which can not now be stopped by WTO rules.

In other words, it is not the workers, or the needs of people who are the cause of the problem, but the service costs of the investment and the demands of the stockmarkets for ever increasing profits, while the resources and people are destroyed in their service.

The good old, "scaling ladder syndrome" one once again. The lords' desire for conquering the neighbour's castle with the serfs dropping from the ladders and ruins all over.

Ed Deak, Big Lake, in the "heartlands" of BC.

If we are going to get into the realm of "should'ves", it's too bad the unions didn't think to invest in the companies their memberships worked for. I have nothing against automation (it is, afterall, the way we get to the leisure society envisaged in the '50s), but what was sorely lacking was an alternative for the displaced workers to continue making an income, either through a co-op arrangement, or investment, or educational upgrades. Or all three.

But our esteemed governments (all of them!) thought the concept of for, of, and by the people some kind of novel fantasy............

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RickW

<a href="http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/11/25/forests_051125.html">http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/11/25/forests_051125.html</a><br />
The document estimates the annual value the forest creates through purifying water, regulating climate and generating oxygen is about $93.2 billion. That's twice the total market value of forestry, hydro and oil and natural gas activity, says the report commissioned by the Canadian Boreal Initiative. <p>---<br>RickW

Perhaps, if anything good can come of this it is this: In the next federal election Harper can pretty much write off Ontario and Quebec.

If anyone thinks that the people in those two provinces will forget this I think they are sadly mistaken.

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"and the knowledge they fear is a weapon to be used against them"

"The Weapon" - Rush