What did the Budget Mean for North Island Powell River_

Roy L Hales/Cortes Currents -Monday November 17, 2025 - Prime Minister Mark Carney's government is expected to face another non-confidence motion today. This will be the third non-confidence motion this month, which the opposition parties have made in regard to the 2025 budget. In this morning's interview, Jennifer Lash, the liberal candidate for this riding during the last election, explains why the budget is good for North Island Powell River, and why it's good for climate action.   Jennifer Lash: “Budget 2025 can be looked at in two ways, and I'm going to use some economic language here. There's both the macro approach and there's the micro approach. So the macroeconomic approach is, what does it mean for Canada?A thriving economy within Canada benefits everybody in terms of just having a healthier economy and generating more tax revenue for the government - which can result in more social services.” “What the Prime Minister did with this budget is he really looked at how we can invest in major industries so that we can see the economic development we need to see in this country to make our economy stronger. A lot of that's through infrastructure, through capital investments, really trying to attract up to a trillion dollars of private investment so the economy at large across Canada is healthier. When our economy is stronger, we have more revenue for the social services that we all benefit from so many times. This, in general, will benefit North Island- Powell River, but there are some specific things that also develop that also benefit this area.” “There is support for the forestry industry, which was announced before the budget, but reconfirmed in the budget. Money to help companies that are dealing with tariffs: how can they diversify their markets? How can they get guaranteed loans so that they can help to retool their industry or their business so that they can adjust to new markets overseas.” “There's really an influx of cash into the forest industry to deal with these tariffs. It's really important to note that this riding is not a stranger to tariffs. “These tariffs that the country is talking about now, we have been dealing with for decades from the United States on the software lumber industry. So I find it refreshing, the government's finally really supporting us through that. I hope that it continues to get the priority attention it needs that the auto sector's getting, the steel sector's getting and aluminum sector's getting so forestry's really important.” “In terms of fisheries, there's also funding for the seafood industry to also look at new markets and that would apply to wild fisheries as well as the aquaculture industry. So that's shellfish, farmed fish, and also our amazing, wild seafood industry. And again, talking about tariffs, It's not just the US tariffs that are a problem. A lot of the seafood industry is really affected by tariffs from China right now. How can we support our industry through that?”