International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the Standing Committee on International Trade. My name is Guy Caron and I am the national representative for Special Projects at the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, CEP. CEP represents 150,000 members concentrated in the forestry, energy and telecommunications sectors.

International Trade committee  Perhaps I will reduce the intensity of what I've been saying. I rather agree that there is a strong chance it will be allowed to die, because it was actually on Mr. Obama's list of eventual tax cuts released a week ago, I think. That makes it a stronger possibility. But we shouldn't be discounting the strength of the lobbying of the U.S. industry.

International Trade committee  I don't have the exact figures here. Perhaps I should have brought them, but I don't have them. With regard to Edmundston, you have to understand that the situation is particularly difficult. In Maine, on the other side of the border, Senator Olympia Snowe is in favour of maintaining the tax credit.

International Trade committee  Thank you for your question. You've given a good summary of the industry's position. I would point out that we have done a lot of work with the industry on this issue. We attended various internal meetings in an attempt to develop a common position. We've agreed on a lot of issues, on the fact that this is a major problem that must be discussed immediately.

International Trade committee  Matching it is actually the second option. The first option is to convince the White House or Congress to change their mind. That's the first option, definitely. I'd like to be confident that Mr. Baucus and Congress will actually reverse that loophole. I'm not that optimistic. Right now what I hear, especially from the White House, is that the credit is there to stay until December 2009, at which point it's supposed to expire, but the lobby pressure is actually very strong for it to be continued past 2009.

International Trade committee  Mr. Chairman, and members of the Standing Committee on International Trade, thank you for inviting me to appear before you. Our secretary-treasurer, Mr. Gaétan Ménard, was originally supposed to make a presentation to you, but he has unfortunately been detained in Montreal on matters pertaining to the AbitibiBowater situation.