Paula (
February 25, 2008)
We obviously need forestry and will have forestry in northern Ontario. It may not provide the level of employment and income or be as dominant for years to come, but it will come back. This should be a time for governments to provide the foundation to encourage other sectors of the economy to grow and expand, decrease taxes, competitive energy, improve infrastructure and provide training. Industrial natural resource extraction provides the jobs we need to diversify our economy. I hope we're smart enough to recognize this through all the noise from some self destructive groups. |
LENNY (
February 22, 2008)
It's called economic cleansing. The strong will stay and the weak shall move. Its been going on in this country for decades. The sun will shine on Kenora as it always has. just relax & smell the coffee. Life is too short. |
Jack (
February 22, 2008)
No point in fairly tales. Forestry is dead. Too much competition from South America and Asia. So what should we do. We should concentrate on our positives and that is LOW which can be developed into a world class resort area. We should pressure McGuinty into opening up crown land for development of year round homes on lake lots. Kenora would then be the service centre for thousands of new residents and that could be the mainstay of the local economy. The town needs an economic base and then any future forestry or mining projects would be a bonus. |
Dave (
February 22, 2008)
Between the governments lack of will to allocate trees, high fuel and energy costs and our strong dollar, forestry is all but dead.
There is no quick fix either. We are competing globally and with that goes the cheap labour, lack of supervision, unions, employee health and safety and benefits. Lets face it, we priced ourselves out of the market and the jobs are disappearing daily. |
Paul (
February 22, 2008)
Yes, as long as we keep electing governments that don't care about (forestry) provincially and federally. On the other hand if voters would elect a government that cared it would back on track. |
Ryan (
February 21, 2008)
The forest industry in Canada now competes globally, truly for the first time. Our cost structures have slowly creeped out of control and we no longer compete with many more modern facilities around the globe - thus, mill closures. We are also currently riding out an unprecedented downturn in the U.S. housing market, and thus those facilities that rely heavily on this market are taking downtime or curtailments. Neither one of these factors (competition or markets) can be remotely affected by town councils, political parties, letters to the editor, etc. Would I give up, no. But I would acknowledge that the world just isn't looking towards NW Ontario for as many forest products as it used to. That's just reality. Move on. |
Dennis (
February 21, 2008)
Lets face it, again, we do not fit into the big picture. If this was the auto or airline sector, there would br all sorts of assistance available.
Our illustrious governments will not allocate the fiber the plants need, they will not lower, cap or subsidize energy costs and because the fools to the south screwed up the mortgage and home owning business, forestry is all but dead.
On the bright side, look at the trees left standing to filter carbon, less green house emissions and loads of energy savings. |
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