Canada's Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr just announced C$867 million (around $650 million) in financial supports for softwood lumber producers and the communities where they are based…“Canada is standing up to the U.S., Canada is standing up for Canadians.”
On Wednesday, the Conference Board of Canada released a report saying Canadian softwood producers would pay $1.7 billion in duties a year and cut 2,200 jobs and $700 million in U.S. exports over the next two years before the dispute is settled.
And perhaps on the basis of that report, as Canadian Press reports, the package includes loans and loan guarantees to help cushion the blow for forestry companies and to help them exploring new markets and innovations.
Package includes up to C$605 million in loans and loan guarantees for companies, C$45 million to reach new markets, C$118 million in innovation funding for firms, C$9.5 million funding for those who lose jobs, C$80 million in training, C$10 million for indigenous resource development.
The help includes C$260 million to help diversify the market base for Canadian lumber products, improve the efficiency of indigenous forestry initiatives and extend work-sharing agreement limits to minimize layoffs.
The money also includes measures to support workers who want to upgrade their skills and transition to a different industry.
Cabinet discussed the options for a package last month, but the federal government wanted more input from the provinces via the special working group Carr established in February.
Notably, the government has been careful to characterize the money as a support package, not a bailout, in order to avoid running further afoul of protectionist forces in the United States.
Remember how everyone screamed at Trump that this would send Lumber prices soaring, crush homebuilder margins, send housing costs through the roof? Well…
via http://ift.tt/2rJtvwk Tyler Durden