The union representing 27,000 forestry industry workers is concerned the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement could mean less value-added jobs in Canada.
Unifor spokesman Scott Doherty said although the agreement to liberalize trade between 12 countries on both shores of the Pacific Ocean that was signed on Sunday could open markets for Canadian pulp and newsprint, the union is concerned it may mean more raw logs shipped overseas from Canadian forests.
Governments have yet to release the TPP text but the agreement would drop tariffs between countries in very different stages of development, opening Canada’s labour competitiveness to countries like Malaysia, Peru and Vietnam.
Doherty expressed concern for the future of sawmilling operations as well as pulp and paper mills.
“We’re exporting raw logs to the U.S. and Japan as opposed to exporting value-added products,” Doherty said.
“If we continue to see an export of logs, if we start to see Ontario and Quebec logs going to fibre mills that can export to Malaysia and Japan, that’s going to have a negative effect on manufacturing jobs in Canada.”
Doherty pointed to a former British Columbia law, which prescribed wood had to be milled within a certain distance of its forest source. That law was removed in 2000 and the effect has been devastating on local forestry production.
To make matters worse, governments and companies responded to a pine beetle infestation in the B.C. interior by increasing the export of raw logs to Asia. That has decreased the wood supply at a time when the industry expects better access to those Asian markets could increase their business by as much as $20 billion over the next five years.
“Residents and citizens should have a say for what they want to see their resources used for,” he said.
“And it should have an impact on good jobs for their communities.”
