The photo printed with the headline “Tory Candidates Laud Pipeline Industry” (Oct. 9) was carefully staged to show pipe produced at Evraz stored outside the fence of Tesco Mechanical, the company hosting this Conservative campaign stunt.
The story did not mention that Tesco itself uses pipe imported from China, which does not support employment at Evraz in Regina.
It did correctly report, “The candidates did not make any new announcements in regards to new projects or investments.” Certainly, the Conservative government has not done anything to prevent Chinese steel producers from exploiting unfair competitive advantages by undercutting internationally
The new trans-Pacific trade deal negotiated by Conservatives in secret during the election campaign will facilitate importing pipe from Japan and Korea, as opposed to manufacturing pipe in Canada.
NDP leader Tom Mulcair has consistently supported a west-east pipeline, subject to a proper environmental review process. Unlike proposals running west or south from the Alberta oil sands, a pipeline going east would have the capacity to transport Saskatchewan oil and keep refining jobs in our country.
The Conservatives offer nothing but photo ops and empty rhetoric about pipe manufacturing jobs. By contrast, the NDP’s fair trade policies would limit the dumping of steel from offshore into the Canadian market, encouraging the use of pipe produced in Regina.
The NDP has better policies to support good Canadian jobs and is the only party that can replace Conservatives in Regina.
Ken Neumann,
United Steelworkers Canadian National Director and former IPSCO employee