Trudeau’s visit to the factory of LICS

Photo By Stéphane Bouchard
Justin Trudeau has visited the Alma works of LICS to complete his tour of the county of Lac-Saint-Jean.

Stéphane Bouchard

Friday, 20 October, 2017 15:40

UPDATE
Friday, 20 October 2017 23:21

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ALMA | Justin Trudeau has completed his tour of the county of Lac-Saint-Jean visiting the facilities of Resolute forest Products (RFP), a business hit hard by a trade war with the Americans.

Come lend a hand to the liberal candidate Richard Hébert for the by-election in Lac-Saint-Jean, the prime minister was that this activity provided for in its agenda Friday.

The workers of the factory and the representatives of LICS have benefited from the passage of Justin Trudeau in their facilities to share with him their concerns. They also apprised the prime minister on several issues that threaten the future of the forest industry.

“It was a great opportunity to interact with the workers, to listen to some of their concerns,” said Justin Trudeau at the output of the plant LICS.

Wanting to rally the voters of Alma, the prime minister recalled that his government, according to him, defends the interests of forest communities.

“[We also] talked about the future of forestry in Québec and how we are in the process of defending the interests of workers in the region, ” said Mr. Trudeau.

WELCOME VISIT

For the spokesperson of the PFR, Karl Blackburn, this visit was an opportunity to raise awareness of the prime minister to the harsh reality in which the company operates.

“The challenges we face are a federal responsibility. We think of the act as a threatened species. We of course think of international trade, the rules that will govern the commercial relations between the nations, ” explained Mr. Blackburn.

The mayor of Alma, Marc Asselin, was also satisfied with the meeting with the prime minister. “There has been good questions and good concerns that have been mentioned, and his answers, I found them good,” said the one who spent most of his career in this factory.

For his part, the president of the union of professional employees and clerical, Pierre Tremblay, is hopeful that the prime minister will take into account the point of view of the workers in the future.

“It is more sensitive. […] It has been shown that the plant of the Alma, it was men, it was women, it was families, ” said Mr. Tremblay.

COMPLAINT OF NORPAC

This visit was taking place so that another tile could soon hit the PFR. The United States could soon impose countervailing duties and anti-dumping duties, following a complaint of the paper Norpac.

“There is an assessment of the complaint that is being made. If the conclusions were to lead to the imposition of countervailing duties on newsprint paper, it would affect the production of the factory Alma directly, ” said Karl Blackburn.

This tax could be added to those already imposed by the U.s. on the paper surcalandré and timber.