Subject: The NDP Plan: Resources

From: [email-masked] (MARY OLIN)
Date: 12 Mar 1993 19:59 PST

A FUTURE FOR CANADA'S RESOURCE COMMUNITIES
     As part of our overall economic strategy, our plan targets Canada's
resource commmunities for reconstruction and renewal.  The future of
many regions of our country depends on it. 
     An important part of our strategy will be to increase value-added
activities--that is, to increase the amount of resource processing,
whether the resource is agricultural produce, fish, forest products, or
minerals.  This will help diversify local economies and sustain
communities over the long term. 

-->Agriculture
     Family farms are the core of many rural communities.  But farm
income has been dropping--by 20 percent in 1991, on top of a 12 percent
decline in 1990 --and many families have been forced off their land. 
Farm families deserve a fair return for their products. 
      Our plan includes a number of measures to help family farms:
      A national farm income stabilization program will provide a
guaranteed price to farmers for part of their crop (for example, the
first eight thousand bushels of wheat), with payments calculated
according to production costs.  This program will protect farmers during
periods of falling or low agricultural prices, and target assistance to
those who need it most. 
     This program will replace existing, less well-structured federal
farm support programs at about the same spending level. 
     Farm forclosures will be suspended until an adequate farm debt
review process is in place. 
     The Farm Credit Corporation will be directed to develop a farm debt
relief plan with a low fixed interest rate.  This measure will cost the
federal government an average of approximately $500 million a year. 
     We will work with provincial governments to implement
locally-controlled community trusts to manage agricultural land that
comes into the possession of the crown.  Rather than selling off
productive land to the highest bidder, these trusts will open up new
land tenure options for farmers, including leasing land. 
     Reasearch and development funding will be targeted at developing
more sustainable agricultural methods. 
     If Canadian agriculture is going to have a future, we have to do a
better job of protecting soil and water.  We will introduce improvements
to the pesticide registration process.  We will support the creation of
"organic" grades for produce.  And we will design tax incentives for
farmers to purchase conservation technologies. 
     We will continue to support the principles of orderly marketing
through marketing boards and the Canadian Wheat Board. 

-->The Fishery
     Federal government mis-management and foreign overfishing have
combined to decimate Atlantic fish stocks, threatening the fabric of
hundreds of communities in Atlantic Canada.  The resulting moratorium on
harvesting cod has destroyed thousands of fisheries-related jobs. 
     On the west coast, jobs are threatened by a Free Trade Agreement
ruling that mandates exports of unprocessed salmon and herring, our most
valuable west coast fish stocks.  Problems in the inland fishery are
devastating many aboriginal and northern communities. 
     The Canadian fishery must adopt more ecologically sound management
practices, and we have to protect fishing communities and fishing
people.  The indiscriminate harvesting levels of the past will not serve
the interests of the future.  They must be replaced by management
practices that will rebuild resources so that they can produce their
optimal sustainable yield. 
     Under our plan we will institutionalize a system of community
co-management of the fisheries.  Fishers must be involved in determining
policy.  We will open the doors, creating new institutions that bring
fishing communities into the decision-making process, including the
setting of quotas and allocations, and future restructuring. 
     We will restore adequate funding for the Department of Fisheries
and Oceans, in order to permit the department to properly do its job of
enforcement and the study and co-management of fish stocks. 
     We will restructure the Fresh Water Fish Marketing Corporation to
maintain pooled pricing and coordinated marketing, while facilitating
local processing. 
     The National Investment Fund will look for commercially viable
partnerships with fishing people and fishing communities to invest in
modern, sustainable harvesting equipment.  The fund will also lood for
viable partnerships with firms, co-ops and community development
enterprise engaged in value-added processing and local manufacture of
boats and fishing gear.  As a major fishing nation, Canada should be
processing its own product and manufacturing and exporting world-quality
fishing equipment.  Instead we import 85 percent of our gear and export
too much unprocessed resource. 
     We will establish, unilaterally if necessary, Canadian management
jurisdiction over the entire continental shelf off Atlantic Canada
including the "nose" and "tail" of the Grand Banks. 

-->Forestry
     The forest industry accounts for more than 300,000 direct and 1.1
million indirect jobs in Canada, and produces some $43 billion worth of
goods annually.  The bulk of the industry is regulated by provincial and
territorial governments in Canada.  Only 10 percent of Canadian forests
are under direct federal jurisdiction.  Nevertheless, the need for a
coherent strategy towards the industry is clear.  The fate of our
Atlantic fishery awaits our forestry industry with catastrophic
consequences for employment in Canada if we don't act. 
     Under our plan:
     The federal government will work with provinces and territories on
joint federal-provincial agreements regulating clear-cutting, providing
incentives for reforestation, and protecting old-growth forests. 
     The National Investment Fund will look for commercially-viable
partnerships with people and communities to invest in firms that add
value to forestry products. 
     The Department of Industry, Science and Technology will support
firms engaged in adding value to forest products by helping to organize
pre-market consortia, through the Industrial Research Assistance
Program, and through its other services. 

-->Mining
     More than a million Canadians live in our country's 130 mining
communities across Canada, and 100,000 people work directly in the
mining industry.  Canadian mining is a $17 billion business.  In 1991,
for the first time in Canadian history, more mines closed (33) than
opened (18).  Exploration was a third of what it was in 1987. 
     What is happening, put simply, is that Canadian mining profits are
being reinvested in the developing world.  For example, Canadian mining
companies like Placer Dome, Falconbridge, Rio-Algoma, and Cominco
invested almost $2 billion in mining projects in Chile between 1987 and
1992.  This despite generous federal, provincial and territorial grants
to encourage resource companies to develop the mining industry in
Canada. 
     Some mining and resource companies have demonstrated a good measure
of responsibility towards communities affected by adjustment.  Alcan
Aluminum, for example, set up a venture capital fund in partnership with
municipalities and governments to launch new businesses in the Saguenay
region of Quebec, when it restructured its extensive facilities in that
region to the detriment of employment there. 
     Under our plan, future federal financial participation in the
industry will be in the form of equity stakes with a corresponding say
in management and investment decisions, rather than through tax and cash
grants.  A more businesslike relationship between the federal government
and the mining industry in investing in new projects will help reduce
the redirection of resources offshore, and will make it easier for the
government to direct attention to locally-based processing,
environmental protection, local sourcing of equipment, and reinvestment
in the community. 
     The National Investment Fund will look for commercially-viable
partnerships with small and medium-sized mining firms engaged in
exploration. 
     We will extend present federal flow-through share provisions to
junior mineral resource companies. 
     The federal government will work with resource companies and
resource communities to create venture capital partnerships and
community development initiatives designed to diversify local economies. 

-->Infrastructure and Services in Rural and Remote Communities
     Rural and remote communities must have fair access to national
postal services, transportation, telecommunications, government
services, and financial services.  Federal crown corporations and
federally-regulated utilities will be mandated to work closely with
rural and remote communities to ensure they receive the services they
need.