Re: “Alberni port exports double,” Jan. 19
I found this article most distressing, and on further analysis of the figures, found that 91.6 per cent of forest products passing through Port Alberni are being exported with no secondary processing.
In other words, we are exporting a large number of jobs, to add to the economies of foreign countries. I only hope this is not indicative of the forest industry as a whole, but I fear it is.
We do similar things in the energy industry, shipping crude oil and bitumen to the U.S. or China, to be refined in those countries, thus creating jobs for them. We used to have a very significant meat-packing industry, but now, much of our beef and other meat products are shipped live to the U.S. to be processed there.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has recently removed what control we had over our grain industry. I anticipate a large part of our grain harvest being shipped through the U.S., thus transferring many of the processing and handling jobs south of the border.
Since 1984, Canadian governments have seen fit to allow our country to be bought up and controlled by foreign interests. I wonder how our economy can ever again be strong and controlled by Canadians. If we have been reduced to subsisting on our natural resources, let us at least process them at home prior to export.
We have been badly served by our last few governments, and it is only getting worse under the current one.
J.C. Holroyd
Sidney
