OTTAWA -- Ottawa is close to releasing a wide-ranging forestry plan worth more than $1 billion, including hundreds of millions of dollars worth of help for the struggling softwood lumber industry.
The entire package, just approved by a high-level committee of the federal cabinet, is getting a final vetting by the prime minister's office before it's released early next week, sources said Wednesday.
About $400 million of the total package involves pledges of loan insurance to help struggling softwood producers ride out the long-running trade dispute with the United States.
The bitter softwood trade war took another turn Wednesday when a North American Free Trade Agreement panel gave Washington one week to drop its countervail duties on Canadian lumber.
This demonstrates why the softwood industry needs help since there's no end in sight to the trade war, said Carl Grenier of the Montreal-based Free Trade Lumber Council.
Prime Minister Paul Martin vowed to keep fighting for a solution and pledged to press the issue with U.S. President George W. Bush this weekend when the two leaders attend APEC meetings in South Korea.
Canada relies on a major ruling in August by the NAFTA Extraordinary Challenge Committee which said the U.S. duties charged to Canadian softwood companies were illegal under U.S. law.
Officials in Ottawa say they've tried to construct a lumber industry aid package that can help hard-hit businesses and communities survive the trade fight but without setting off new U.S. claims of unfair aid.
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