Mr. Chair, I thank the hon. member for his question. I want to point out to him that, indeed, there is a British Columbia company called CanWest that has a sawmill in my riding. It is a relatively large company in the forest industry and its plant in our community plays a very important role. So, we have some common interests in this regard.
As regards the member's question specifically, I think that there is something we should do first. When we travel to the United States, whether it is the Prime Minister, parliamentarians through the Canada-United States interparliamentary group, or our delegations to the United States, we should have with us the means to convince the Americans, regardless of who is the emissary and how this is done. Before we go back to the negotiating table, the Americans must admit that they have to respect the NAFTA agreement.
When we go and talk to the Americans, we must tell them that we are right, that the NAFTA ruling supports our position. We can also tell them that the Canadian government is giving our industries loan guarantees that will allow them to make it through the crisis. This will counter the Americans' main strategy, which is to make the crisis drag on and on so that, in the end, there will be no survivors left. Loan guarantees are the way to deal with this. This is how we will be able to counter the Americans. We can let them know that we will ultimately prevail.
However, if we do not provide these means, we will not achieve the result that we want, regardless of who travels to Washington. We will also not succeed even if the Prime Minister of Canada presents a position that is not supported financially.
We need tools to get a strong mandate to negotiate and win this battle. Currently, the government has not put in the industries' hands the tools that would allow them to make it through the crisis.