A reported $1 billion aid plan for the pulp and paper sector will help save thousands of Canadian jobs as well as help companies cut pollution, an industry group said Thursday.
“It would keep tens of thousands of jobs here,” Avrim Lazar, president and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada
Lazar was reacting to published reports that the federal Conservative government is working on a $1-billion financial package aimed at helping pulp producers shift to green energy sources and make other environmental improvements.
Ottawa and the Ontario government have already committed to a $10.5 billion bailout of General Motors Canada and Chrysler Canada as part of the North American restructuring of their Detroit-based parents under bankruptcy protection laws.
Lazar said the industry wants the government’s aid “to be focused on green improvement.”