Tories, NDP square off over loss of Northern Manitoba jobs

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This article was published 23/10/2017 (2931 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s ‘old news’ that Northern Manitoba will lose 1,500 jobs in the next three years, Premier Brian Pallister acknowledged Monday.

The big news, the premier told reporters, is that unlike the previous NDP government, the Tories are going to do something about it.

“Downsizing in Flin Flon, Thompson… the prognosis has been that way for a long time,” Pallister said in his scrum after the NDP accused him in question period of ignoring the north’s needs. “It’s old news, and it’s frankly the challenge we have to face.”

NDP leader Wab Kinew said the government’s own report on its ongoing Look North Task Force economic development strategy says the north will lose 1,500 jobs at a loss of about $100 million in income annually.

“The plans we’ve seen haven’t identified one new job that would be created,” Kinew told the house.

But Pallister countered that it’s been common knowledge for years that mines and other resource operations in northern communities don’t have much time left.

“The difference between us is, they didn’t have the courage to address it,” the premier said. “They’ve never had plans for the north — that’s what community members told us. This government doesn’t take them for granted — the previous government sure as heck did (at election time).”

Pallister pointed out that his government was able to broker a new owner to take over the Tolko mill in The Pas late last year, saving 300 jobs.

Pallister said that it will be a significant challenge to figure out how to keep skilled workers from leaving to look elsewhere, before Look North can held develop new long-term jobs.

“Labour and capital are mobile,” he said. “That’s the tremendous challenge in the short term.

“People in the north are telling us they don’t want quick fixes,” Pallister said.

Pallister said his government is looking for new natural resource projects similar to the mines and mills whose life spans are dwindling fast, rather than trying to develop new kinds of jobs — tourism the primary exception, however.

“We’ve started with tourism approaches,” Pallister said. “Mining is a key part, tourism another.”

Kinew laid the entire problem on Pallister. He wouldn’t accept any responsibility for what the former NDP government did and didn’t do, reminding reporters he’s been an MLA only since the April 2016 provincial election.

“This is the number one issue when people in Thompson, the Pas talk to me. There are job losses coming,” Kinew said in his scrum.

Immediately, he said, “We’re looking for specific resources to be dedicated to keep people at work.”

Kinew demanded that the Tories move right away to ensure that there’s broadband access across the north.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca