Kenora-Rainy River NDP MPP Howard Hampton says the McGuinty government has shovelled more than $80-million to the Buchanan Group of Companies while former employees are left with no severance or termination pay.

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is demanding the McGuinty Liberals go back to the drawing board to come up with a real plan that will address Northern Ontario’s jobs crisis, especially in the forestry sector.

Howard Hampton, MPP Kenora-Rainy River, today asked why the McGuinty Liberal government is ignoring the financial restructuring of AbitibiBowater where 4,000 good jobs are at risk – while at the same time the Liberal government is contributing $1.25-billion to the financial restructuring of Chrysler to sustain good jobs in Windsor and Brampton.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is lashing out at the McGuinty government continued indifference to Ontario’s forestry crisis in the wake of AbitibiBowater Inc.’s announcement that it must restructure its operations under bankruptcy protection.

The McGuinty government has badly bungled the delivery of hundreds of millions dollars in financial assistance to Ontario’s troubled forestry industry, says NDP Leader Howard Hampton.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request initiated by the NDP shows that nearly two-thirds – $91.8-million out of $150-million – of the government’s Forest Sector Prosperity Fund remained uncommitted at the close of the program. The FOI request also found that of the $350-million allocated to the Loan Guarantee Program, $281.9-million remains uncommitted.

A thousand laid-off workers at Thunder Bay’s Buchanan Forest Products would be guaranteed their severance pay if the McGuinty government had passed Bill 6, says NDP MPP Paul Miller (Hamilton East—Stoney Creek), who proposed the legislation in late 2007.