SASKATCHEWAN MAKES ITS CASE AGAINST THE SOFTWOOD LUMBER DEAL

Minister responsible for the Forest Secretariat Eldon Lautermilch and the president of the Council of Saskatchewan Forest Industries (COSFI) Allen Brander appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade. They testified that the proposed softwood lumber agreement will hurt Saskatchewan's forestry sector and they called on Ottawa to make changes to the deal. The two appeared yesterday afternoon.

"We informed Members of Parliament that this proposed Agreement is a bad deal for Saskatchewan's forest industry, its workers and our forest based communities," Lautermilch said. "We were not consulted on the terms of this Agreement before they were announced on April 27th and we cannot support this deal in its current form."

The Commons Committee began hearing expert witnesses from industry and government across Canada and the U.S. on the terms of the proposed Softwood Lumber Agreement 2006 in May. It tabled an interim report to Parliament in June before the summer recess. The Committee has been called back into special session to hear testimony on the final text of the deal initialled in Geneva on July 1st.

"From the perspective of Saskatchewan's forest industry, we agree with every other provincial forest industry association across Canada that the terms of this Agreement need to be improved," Brander said. "We were there to tell MPs from all political parties what changes Saskatchewan needs to see in order to maintain the commercial viability of our sawmills and other forest manufacturing industries like our pulp and paper sector that rely on sawmills."

The Government of Canada intends to table legislation to implement the proposed Softwood Lumber Agreement in September.

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For More Information, Contact:

Al Willcocks Environment Prince Albert Phone: (306) 953-2437

Brock Folkersen Council of Saskatchewan Forest Industries Saskatoon Phone: (306) 653-7122