NDP Leader Howard Hampton called on the McGuinty Liberals today to keep their promises and release money they announced multiple times over the last three years to bolster the forestry industry.

Hampton was responding to a statement made yesterday by Natural Resources Minister Donna Cansfield that she didn’t have a “magic wand” that would fix the crisis affecting the forestry industry.

“The McGuinty Liberals made a big show of announcing a loan and grant fund that would go to help the forestry industry in Northern Ontario, but this money isn’t flowing. Hard working Northern Ontario families are getting tired of hearing the McGuinty government announced rescue plans that amount to little or nothing,” Hampton said.

The McGuinty Liberals announced a $500 million dollar loan and grant fund to assist the forest industry over two and a half years ago. To date less than 18% of the funding has been announced and even less has actually flowed.

“The Minister doesn’t need a magic wand to make this money flow,” Hampton said. “But now the McGuinty government is making matters worse by proposing to increase electricity rates to the tune of an additional $400 million per year, hitting forestry and manufacturing industries hard.”

Hampton again called for a number of initiatives that would help the manufacturing and the hard working Ontarians it employs. These include:

· The creation of an industrial hydro rate that would go a long way to reducing the costs associated with the manufacturing in Ontario, while at the same time promoting conservation and guaranteeing employment.
· A “Buy Ontario” policy that would give preferential treatment to goods manufactured in Ontario.

· The creation of a Jobs Commissioner who would bring labour, management and government to the table to avert plant closures and job losses.

“Yet again we have a Liberal Minister who would rather make excuses than take action on behalf of Northern Ontario working families,” Hampton said.