Budget delivers big hit to silviculture industry
Voices of criticism could be heard throughout New Brunswick on Wednesday – the day after Finance Minister Victor Boudreau unveiled his $7.1 billion 2008-2009 budget – but few were louder than that of Tim Fox of the Carleton-Victoria Forest Products Marketing Board.
“Shock and disgust,” were the terms Fox used to the describe the deep cuts in silviculture spending on private woodlots. At a time when private woodlot owners are already facing massive challenges in a struggling industry, he said, the Graham Liberals blind sided them with another devastating blow.
Boudreau’s budget announced plans to cut the silviculture program from $8 million to $4 million. While that in itself is bad news for private woodlot owners and the silviculture industry, New Brunswick forest board officials pointed out, the government’s decision to raise private woodlot owners’ share of silviculture costs from 20 per cent to 50 per cent will spell disaster.
“The idea of woodlot owners investing 50 per cent of the cost of these activities under the current circumstances is ludicrous,” said Fox. “With the current market conditions and sales that are less than half of what they should be, woodlot owners willing to invest the kind of money that this represents is very unlikely.
Our estimation is that this announcement will essentially kill the entire program.”
Fox said Carleton and Victoria counties budget approximately $828,000 per year through the provincially-funded Private Woodlot Silviculture program. He added the entire scope of funded activities included site preparation, reforestation, stand tending and pre-commercial thinning.
Wood producers in the region said the announced changes will have a huge impact on work being done on private woodlots, noting last year the counties’ private woodlot owners utilized over 98 per cent of budgeted funds.
Doug Woods, Carleton-Victoria Wood Producer Association woodlot management co-ordinator, said the silviculture companies and its employees will pay the price.
“The really unfortunate side of the whole thing is that most of these silviculture workers are in the system year after year and it is fairly specialized work, where experience is a necessity,” Woods said. “If we lose these workers to Alberta or to other sectors, we will be in a position that we will be forced to start from scratch all over again.
Woodstock Tory MLA David Alward said the government’s “bizarre and irresponsible” cuts to the silviculture program speak volumes about Premier Shawn Graham’s vision for New Brunswick’s forestry industry.
“This sends a message that this government doesn’t see forestry as a future driving force in the New Brunswick economy,” Alward said.
The opposition MLA said the silviculture cuts, combined with this government’s other forestry decisions, provide “a look at the big picture” regarding this government’s plans for the forestry industry. He said the government does not seem to be interested in saving an industry which currently provides between eight and 11 per cent of New Brunswick’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Alward said his view is drawn from a series of small decisions, which when put together show the government’s lack of vision for the forestry sector. As an example, he pointed to the Graham government’s major promotion of its so-called energy-hub strategy.
“Nowhere can you find any mention of biomass,” he said.
New Brunswick’s millions of acres of forest land and industry waste provides a great opportunity for energy production, Alward said, but the government obviously doesn’t see that as an option.
Fox said Premier Graham’s deep cuts to the silviculture program run in stark contrast to the promises he made on the campaign trail.
“I mean, a few short years ago, Graham, who was then leader of the Opposition, stated on his campaign platform that he would promise to increase silviculture funding to $10,000,000 and for a commitment for 10 years, and now this,” Fox said.
“I just don’t get it. I watched the budget speech live and I wondered if the premier actually read the speech before it was given.
Based on everything I have ever heard the premier say with my own ears, I was looking for a surprised look to come across his face when Minister Boudreau read the forestry statements.”
Fox said the cuts to silviculture and other forestry-related initiatives suggest the premier and natural resources minister are getting their marching orders from big business.
“Based on everything that has happened since the Graham Government took power, I can’t help but think that there isn’t a hint of Irving in all of this,” he said.
Fox said J.D. Irving, Limited, along with the N.B. Forest Products Association, has lobbied hard for changes to the silviculture program.
Minister Boudreau defended his government’s program cuts, saying governments must make tough decisions to ensure they can meet spending priorities and balance the books.
“We are making cuts and some of these cuts aren’t going to be easy,” Boudreau told reporters Tuesday.
Those cuts hit hard in the natural resources department, where funding dropped to $84.1 million from the $95.4 million last year.
That includes a reduction of $12.7 million in silviculture funds for both Crown and private land.
Boudreau stressed that $21 million remains in the silviculture budget, but said funds were needed in other areas – like education and training for “high-tech” jobs.
“We are still heavily investing in trees,” he said. “(But) we want to make sure that our students are prepared for the new economies that are coming.”
The Graham government’s second budget, which will see a 2.7 per cent overall increase in spending, delivered cuts to most departments. It also ordered all departments to find ways to trim an additional $15 million in spending. The budget directed all its spending increases to health, social and education programs.
The Liberals are pouring $63.5 million more into the education system in hopes of improving grades among kindergarten to Grade 12 students, providing $12 million to freeze tuitions for university students next year and spending $2.4 million to hire 43 new social workers for child protection.
They’re also spending another $113.3 million on health care, including additional funding for senior care.
Alward, who welcomed spending on such important needs as more social workers for child protection, said he recognizes government must make tough spending decisions. But, he added, government leaders must also understand the economy and how it works.
With a potentially deep economic downturn on the horizon, he said, this budget needed tax relief to spur business investment.
That didn’t happen.
While the Graham government likes to talk about its self-sufficiency agenda, Alward said, its actions make that goal harder to reach.
The Tory MLA said Premier Graham is reverting to the days of Premier Frank McKenna where political spin, not political action, ruled the day.
At a time when it is making cuts to silviculture and climatechange efforts, Alward said, the government found an additional $1 million for Communication New Brunswick.
Français : Les coupures dans les fonds de sylviculture pour les propriétaires de lots boisés privés pourraient s’avérer un désastre pour les contracteurs en sylviculture et leurs employés.
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