Prince George is considered a national hub for Canada’s forestry sector.
That’s according to Conservative MPs Todd Doherty (Cariboo-Prince George) and Randy Hoback (Prince Albert), who both made a stop in the Northern capital on their ‘Defend Local Jobs’ campaign tour.
Members of the Conservative Members of the International Trade Committee, including Hoback are hoping the tour will help identify the issues surrounding Canada’s industrial export relationship with the United States.
“When we go out and we’re meeting with these businesses, we’re finding out how these policies are impacting here because that policy is impacting that secondary business and that secondary supplier,” said Doherty in light of the on-going trade war with Canada and our southern neighbours.
“We have families concerned about how they will put food on the table,” said MP Todd Doherty in a later release.
“Industries in all sectors are worried about layoffs, and the impact tariffs will have on their ability to do business in the future. Hundreds of thousands of Canadian jobs and the overall health of our economy is at stake.”
Hoback has visited several larger communities on this tour and describes what he’s heard so far as ‘depressing.’
“When the tariffs hit steel and aluminum, it really had an impact. Then, the counter-tariffs actually even doubled down those impacts. So we’re seeing a lot of manufacturers that are going to work share programs that have reduced their employee numbers, and things that probably didn’t need to happen if we had a Liberal government that would have been engaged from Day One.”
He adds PG also has benefits to the service sector, in which he’s concerned they’ll be ignored if tariffs continue to elude the Canadian government.
US President Donald Trump has imposed a deadline of Friday for Canada to rejoin the NAFTA negotiations.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is headed to Washington, DC to re-join the those talks on a trilateral trade deal.
– with files from the VISTA National Newsdesk
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