Hon. James Downey (Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism): I have a statement for the House, and I have copies for the members.

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to inform the House of an important achievement involving more than a thousand jobs and a lot of hard and solid effort. Just three years after saving their mill from potential closure, the new employee-owners of the Pine Falls Paper Company Limited have been able to retire the $30-million line of credit from the Province of Manitoba.

In 1994, the Pine Falls employees faced a serious situation. The newsprint industry was in recession and the former owners were no longer willing to make large capital expenditures to keep the mill competitive. At that time the mill employed approximately 500 full-time and 700 seasonal staff in harvest and forest renewal work. I was also informed this morning by Mr. Pitre, who is with us today in the gallery, that they currently have over 520 employees at the plant.

The community of Pine Falls depended heavily on the mill, not only because of the jobs, but because it operated or funded many local services such as the elementary and high schools, recreation centres, garbage collection, fire protection and road and sewer maintenance. The management, employees and other investors purchased the mill and kept it going with the help of a $30-million line of credit from the Province of Manitoba. In fact, the Pine Falls Paper Company Limited not only kept it going, they are now retiring the line of credit seven years ahead of schedule.

During the past three years, the company borrowed only $5 million on the line of credit. The Province of Manitoba's line of credit has enabled the company to leverage some $53 million in credit from private sources and repay their loan. In addition, it helped the company finance two major projects, a waste-water treatment plant to meet federal and provincial environmental standards and a new de-inking plant to produce recycled paper. Now, thanks to their efforts and strong performance, Pine Falls Paper Company Limited is able to operate totally from private financing. This is a great vote of confidence and is richly deserved by the company's performance and in its future. In 1994, the total annual benefit to the province from the Pine Falls mill was an estimated $75 million. It is certainly more than that today.

We are delighted with the turnaround in the fortunes and the future of Pine Falls Paper Company Limited and in the lives of the workers, managers, investors and the community. We are pleased that the government was able to help leverage the private financing that helped make the buy-out possible, and we are even more gratified by the early repayment.

Madam Speaker, we want to congratulate the Pine Falls Paper Company and all those involved in saving their community and putting it on a firm footing. Through faith in themselves and the refusal to give up, the community of Pine Falls has shown what Manitobans can do by working together. Thanks to all of these factors, an important, well-established Manitoba operation has been saved and has a bright future ahead.

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Mr. Gary Doer (Leader of the Opposition): I would like to join with the Deputy Premier in congratulating all the members of the Pine Falls Paper Company and the members of the adjacent community that worked so hard together to maintain the jobs and resources in their community and to do an excellent job when faced with the potential closure from the Abitibi corporation. It shows us that employees and management working together in a co-operative, long-term way, working together in Manitoba, with Manitobans, together as Manitobans can make a difference. We believe this is a model for other companies that are facing similar situations.

We would like to look at this example and perhaps look at the situation at Repap in The Pas, where we have had promise after promise after promise, deal after deal after deal with a multinational corporation when maybe we should be looking at modest goals, modest kinds of objectives and having realistic plans with Manitobans for Manitobans in northern Manitoba as we have seen in terms of the Pine Falls Paper Company.

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Long ago we called on the government and the Premier (Mr. Filmon) to proceed with the waste-water treatment plant. We are pleased that the company has developed this technology. We also stated that we believed the de-inking plant was absolutely necessary in terms of the long-term survival of the company, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to have visited that de-inking plant. I know it is a site that many school kids also visit to be able to witness the long-term recycling that is taking place with the de-inking plant.

Madam Speaker, employees sacrificed, people in the area sacrificed, the government put up the line of credit. We supported that decision. We did not call on the government to withdraw that money in the election campaign in our alternative budget. We thought that it was a realistic proposal to bridge this company from the private owner into the community owner. We believe in that, in bridging communities that are under tremendous pressure, particularly in commodity markets, through the rough times, so that they can survive over the long haul.

We would also continue to monitor the whole issue of the sustainable resource that is in that area. We know that the company is very interested in maintaining sustainable resources, and all Manitobans are interested in long-term forest practices that make sense for all Manitobans, including the employees of the plant.

We are also very concerned, and have raised this with management in the past, the relationship with the First Nations communities that are in part of the cut area and adjacent to the community. We will continue--when we meet with the employees and the management of the Pine Falls Paper Company--to ask questions about the relationship with Sagkeeng and the positive relationship that they have. We will continue to push that for employment for First Nations people in the resource area that is so important.

So I want to congratulate the employees. I want to congratulate this success. As I say, we are ever vigilant in terms of this company, but we think it is a very, very positive announcement today and for that we are thankful. Thank you.