Miramichi Leader,  December 7, 2004 by Bill Brewer Emergency in forestry: Graham The forest industry is in a crisis and the government has failed to make any kind of plan to help the cornerstone industry. So says New Brunswick Liberal Opposition leader Shawn Graham. And, today, he plans to table a motion for an emergency debate on the issue concerning the Miramichi region and the future of forestry in the province.  Today, during question period, he is expected to ask Premier Bernard Lord and the government to accept a wake-up call and address serious forestry issues that he says have been ignored. The Miramichi Leader obtained a copy of the motion, which reads in part: “Be it therefore resolved that the House condemn the government’s inaction in forestry and urge the government to cease its inattention to the forest industry.” Up to this point, Graham said the response from the government has been pitiful. “The government has been silent on the crisis facing the Miramichi,” he said. “We’ve yet to hear from the minister of natural resources or the premier on how they’re going to deal with the closure of the kraft mill. Meanwhile, Natural Resources Minister Keith Ashfield says that’s not so. This government has been more involved in the forestry file than many of its predecessors, he said in an interview Thursday morning. Since the 2003 election, Ashfield said the government has strongly supported the Jaakko Poyry report and has formed an all-party wood supply committee. “I don’t think that’s an indication that we’ve been asleep at the wheel,” he said.  Several reports have been filed by the committee since its inception and the natural resources department has already started to work on some of them. And during the next year, Ashfield said the government plans to work on wood supply objectives through forest inventory, and he hopes to have more funding for silviculture in the next budget. So concerning Graham’s comments, Ashfield said he hasn’t been silent and doesn’t plan on quieting down in the future. “It’s a difficult situation, but we’ll manage,” he said. On Tuesday, Graham and Miramichi region MLAs Rick Brewer, John Foran and Carmel Robichaud told the editorial Leader staff they want to know what the provincial government sees as a long-term plan for the region and the provincial forest industry. “We’re seeing capital upgrades in other mills in North America and that investment is not coming here to N.B. and that’s why we’re going to force the debate to find out exactly what the government’s commitment is,” Graham said. “We’re in a situation where we’re seeing a reaction from crisis to crisis rather than a long-term vision of how we’re going to allow our mills an opportunity to compete,” he said.  Meanwhile, Ashfield says the problem in competing with wood fibre from the mills in the province is they have to also compete with others in South America and Asia where product and labour costs are cheaper. “For us to compete with those markets we have to be very, very efficient,” he said. Part of the plan the opposition leader wants to set out for the province is ways to modernize the forest industry by creating a better environment for companies to invest. This can be done through three methods: keeping energy costs down, a commitment to growing more wood fibre and sound management practices, Graham said. “Those three factors combined will entice industry to invest here in New Brunswick.” During the editorial board meeting, he also spoke about the closure of the kraft mill and said the best opportunity for the region was to step away from kraft products to more value-added products. “Where we can compete though, in N.B., is by moving more to a higher end pulping process and that’s BCTMP,” he said. BCTMP, which stands for Bleached Chemical Thermal Mechanical Pulp, can be used in tissue and toilet papers and box board among other items.  Graham said the price of kraft is too low and there is too much available on the world market. If the industry in the region is to survive, it has to move to more value-added materials, he said. And to do that the Miramichi region needs to get the same treatment from major corporations as other areas around the world, he added. “UPM is a global company. They invest a billion dollars of their own profits, yearly, around the world. Let’s see some of that money coming here.”