Doherty says federal budget’s forestry funding needed, but new softwood lumber deal needed too

The federal government introduced the budget for 2026-2027 last week, which comes with a forecast deficit of $62.3 billion this year, with declining deficits throughout the five-year forecast period.

“My number one concern is that Prime Minister Carney, in the short time he’s been in office, he’s doubled the debt of the last ten years of Prime Minister Trudeau, and the success of the Prime Ministers prior to 2015,” said Cariboo-Prince George-Omineca MP Todd Doherty. “He has spent more money than all of those Prime Ministers and Prime Minister Trudeau in 18 months. That’s not free money, that money is taxpayers’ money and someone has to pay for it.”

Doherty said this will have to be shouldered by Canadians who are already facing an affordability crisis.

“We have thousands of families that are out of work due to the forestry crisis, there’s nothing in this budget that addresses those job losses,” he said. “We’re now spending more money servicing our debt than we do in terms of our healthcare transfers to our provinces and our territories. This budget does nothing to bring mental health in parity with physical health.”

Doherty said we’ll have to see in the time ahead how that spending gets channeled to the north.

“Whether we can finally see the realization of some of the major projects that are scheduled or slated or proposed for our region,” he said. “I guess I will say that I am cautiously optimistic but probably more on the pessimistic side, we’ve been here before, we’ve seen a lot of money that’s being spent, but it’s not really trickling down to the wellbeing of every day Canadians or the residents of Cariboo-Prince George-Omineca.”

Also in the budget is a proposed $6.5 billion in spending and financing over six years, starting in 2027-2028 to support Canada’s forestry industry. This includes $500 million to strengthen fibre supply chains, $2 billion to help forestry companies upgrade equipment and facilities and $4 billion in financing through Export Development Canada for larger industrial projects.

“I think that that is money that is much needed, our region has probably been hurt the most in terms of this government’s failure to secure a softwood lumber agreement or to even make forestry a priority,” Doherty said. “This is one of our major employers, not just in our province but in our country, but in our country, and yet they are treated like a second class citizen to those that are in Ontario, those industries that are in Ontario.”

Doherty said he’s hopeful the forestry investments will re-open some facilities and create more jobs across the region.

“They haven’t done anything to secure a new softwood lumber agreement, which would bring some consistency and confidence back into the industry,” Doherty said. “They’ve done nothing to combat the tariffs, matter of fact, they walked away from the lawsuit to get back any of those unfair tariffs that are being held, that have been taken from our forestry producers.”

Doherty said major employers have been leaving town in the communities across his riding, such as Prince George, 100 Mile House, Quesnel, Vanderhoof and Williams Lake.

“That’s not just a forestry worker,” he said. “Very likely that forestry worker might be married to a nurse, or a teacher or a doctor, or they might be multiple generations working in that mill or working within the industry, and when those jobs leave, they’re not coming back. We need to make sure we’re standing up for communities, we need to make sure that that funding that is announced in the budget, that it actually gets there.”

Doherty said a good first step would be to not play the waiting game with U.S. President Donald Trump, and get a deal done.

“We’ve already waited 11 years to secure a softwood lumber agreement,” he said. “I think the industry and our communities deserve to be put ahead.”

Doherty adds he feels the government hasn’t done anything to ‘attack’ the affordability crisis.

“We’ve proposed eliminating the federal fuel taxes to save I think approximately 20 cents per litre,” he said. “We have proposed to reduced the redundancy and bureaucracy and the wasteful corporate subsidies and handouts, we have asked the government to prioritize affordability, economic growth and essential services.”

Doherty said his party will be a willing participant and work with the government on these initiatives.

“The day that the budget was announced, every Canadian, their share of the national debt grew, and we need to make sure that we are doing whatever we can to make sure that we are helping Canadians move forward, helping Canadians put more money in their pockets.”