Watson Island, a poster child for foreign ownership gone wrong?

The NDP MP for Skeena-Bulkley Valley has found the perfect example for his quest to highlight the Conservative Government's mishandling of the nations foreign investment files.

Using the moribund pulp mill at Watson Island as his example, Nathan Cullen outlined his concerns over the Conservatives agenda of allowing foreign companies to take control of Canadian assets, without any guarantees that the operations will continue to provide employment and financial benefits for Canadians.

He tied in the local mill with the recent sale of Alcan to the Rio Tinto group, which is based out of the United Kingdom and has been working the Kitimat Works revitalization file for a fair amount of time now.

And while the ink on that transaction is barely dry, Rio Tinto finds itself now the target of a larger bid for its assets, interestingly enough with one potential buyer coming out of China. A show of interest that Rio Tinto has so far been able to hold off, though considering the quick pace of these multi-nation business deals of late, it wouldn't take much for that to change.

Cullen sees dangers from the Skeena sale that could be repeated with Alcan, where the smelter could be closed without any recourse from Canada regarding its fate, leaving a northern resource community in a rather bad spot with little support from its own governmernts.

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He explained those concerns in full, in a front page story in the Tuesday edition of the Daily News.

MP URGES OTTAWA: STAND UP TO FOREIGN BUSNESS OWNERS

Nathan Cullen calls for restrictions on the overseas owners of enterprises
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Page one

The now defunct Watson Island pulp mill is a prime example of why Canada needs better foreign ownership laws, said Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen.

The China Paper Group, through its B.C. subsidiary Sun Wave Forest Products, bought the pulp mill in a fire sale two years ago and has since done little with the property, other than lease out parts - in one case to allow for a temporary container examination facility and in the other for the Coast Tsimshian to operate a container stuffing facility.

"This government makes absolutely no requirements of a foreign company buying assets in Canada," said Cullen.

The China Paper Group is 80 per cent owned by the Chinese Central Government.

"I think when companies from China, the States or Central Europe show up in Canada, it is like the wild west. There is no national strategy for a single industry in this country. When you look at things like the selling of the mill and the very light and loose promises that were made, it was my first concern and remains my concern that these guys are not obligated to do a single thing."

The pulp mill in Prince Rupert used to be part of the Skeena Cellulose company, which operated a sawmill in Terrace as well as chipping and specialty sawmill operations in other parts of the Northwest. The Prince Rupert mill alone employed more than 400 people before it stopped operating in 2001.

"There was no condition in the sale to actually operate the mill, they just sold it. It's like a fire sale almost. Canada treats every industry like they would prefer to see it sold off to a foreign holder. It drives me crazy as a Canadian and it hurts our economy. We loss tens of thousands of jobs every year because of this."

What happened to the mill is another reason why the sale of Alcan to Rio Tinto makes the MP uncomfortable.

Alcan was morphed into a division of Rio Tinto last year.

"Right now, I am in a fit with with the minister over the potential sale of Rio Tinto Alcan because the federal government is saying they don't have any conditions of sale. If this company gets sold and whoever buys it wants to shut down smelters or move head offices, that is okay with them.

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We need a federal government with a spine to stand up for the interests of this country. Every other country in the world does this," said Cullen.