The federal government’s plan for a new $1 billion fund for so-called “one-industry” towns shows no signal of help for the country’s battered livestock sector, the Canadian Pork Council said Thursday.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, visiting rural New Brunswick Thursday, launched his proposal for a Community Development Trust to “help provinces and territories assist communities and workers suffering economic hardship caused by the current volatility in global financial and commodities markets.”
The three-year, $1 billion package is aimed at “one-industry towns facing major downturns, or communities plagued by chronic high unemployment, or regions hit by layoffs across a range of sectors,” Harper said. It still needs the approval of Parliament through budget legislation.
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Hog farmers know all about economic volatility, facing the losses of farms across the country “because of a chain of events beyond their control, the dollar, the low in the hog cycle, and the huge run-up in feed prices,” said CPC president Clare Schlegel, reiterating the council’s call for loans to help livestock producers stay afloat through the next several months.
“We call on our government for increased support, as has already happened in other competing countries,” Schlegel said.
New Brunswick, the first province to sign up for Community Development Trust funds, will get $30 million over three years for economic adjustment, particularly in communities hard-pressed by downturns in the forestry sector.
“We must find ways to diversify our economy and move away from the concept of one-industry towns,” said Premier Shawn Graham at Harper’s press event.
Under the Community Development Trust, a “base amount” of $10 million would go to each province and $3 million to each territory. The rest of the funding is to be allocated on a per capita basis.
Quoted by the Canadian Press news agency Thursday, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall acknowledged the trust money (expected to be about $36 million in Saskatchewan’s case) could help hard-hit forestry towns such as Prince Albert and Big River.
But Wall wondered aloud whether the money could be applied in the ag sector, where livestock producers have been hit by the rising Canadian dollar.
Manitoba Premier Gary Doer, whose province is expected to get $40 million from the trust, told the Winnipeg Free Press Thursday that he’d like to direct some funds to training and to aboriginal communities, but didn’t say which towns might see a direct benefit. “If I include some, I exclude others,” he told the newspaper.
One estimate of aid to Ontario, where manufacturing businesses have taken a hard hit from the loonie on its way up, was $350 million.
