Measures for wood wood: “We will take them with pleasure”

Bas-Laurentiens of the forest industry react positively to investments announced Tuesday evening by the Government of Canada in the Lumnteler Industry.

It is a maximum of $ 1.2 billion, in particular in loan guarantees and subsidies, but also with a commitment to double the use of Canadian wood in residential construction.

We are not used to seeing that. It feels good to see that timber is a priority for the federal government, especially in the current context where the market is under tension with prices.

All the measures we can have, we will take them with pleasuresays Pierre-Olivier Morency, of the Lebel group.

The Lebel group has around twenty sawing factories and value -added products mainly in Quebec. He indicates that its factories are currently not working at full speed due to the economic context, and believes that Ottawa’s announcement is excellent news.

Encourage construction with Canadian wood is the most interesting aspect of Mr. Carney’s announcement, for private producers represented by the Syndicat des Produceurs du Bas-Saint-Laurent.

Because this measure directly affects the livestock producers in the territory in the territorymentions its managing director, Stéphane Forest, recalling that Bas-Saint-Laurent is at the forefront of the regions of Quebec as to the production of wood in the private forest.

On the side of forest workers’ unions, we are delighted with any announcement to reduce economic pressure on the forest industry.

The national representative of Unifor Bas-Saint-Laurent-Gaspésie-Côte-Nord, Martin Dugas, said however that the sums could have been more important, in particular for the diversification of products from the forest sector, even if it considers that it is still a good start.

According to him, Ottawa has not yet been equity with the forest sector.

When we look at the oil side, we inject billions each year. We go there for 1.2 billion in the forest sector for the moment. It’s been a good time that we hadn’t had any sums like that. I would not be ready to say that it is equitablehe underlines.

His union attached his voice to the other three unions that represent workers in the forest industry and press Quebec to quickly follow suit in Ottawa.

The Minister of Natural Resources and Forests, Maïté Blanchette-Vézina, welcomes Ottawa measures to help the forest sector.

She indicates that her government wants to make sure that the sums go quickly to forestry companies. It will quickly take the terms to help the forest sector and I will stay on the lookout for Quebec to have its right part of these sumsshe says.

It mentions that Quebec represents around 30 % of wood production in the country.

She also underlines that it is urgent that Ottawa negotiates with the United States government to reach a settlement in the building wood conflict in order to ensure better predictability for industry.

In a written statement, the spokesperson for the Bloc Québécois in matters of natural resources, Mario Simard, maintains that Ottawa arrives with an overly modest plan which will have few immediate benefits on workers and companies that are struggling to survive.

He also believes that the forest industry is far from receiving the same support as other industries, including the automotive industry or that of steel.

According to Pierre Sirois, president of the Federation of Forest Groups of Bas-Saint-Laurent, the forest industry needs all possible support Until the situation becomes more predictable again again, because it is the hope of everyone that it becomes more predictable in the coming monthshe sums up.