Thank you, again, for your work yesterday in putting this back together.
I thank our colleague, Mr. Lessard, for bringing forward this motion. It is our view that there has not been enough done for the crisis in manufacturing and the forestry industry. We think the response of the government to date is inadequate.
Just over two years ago, the Liberal Party proposed a $1.5 billion program to help the forestry sector. It had booked that money, and then the new government killed that program. The commitment of the Liberal Party is clear on this. Our leader has made a number of policy statements about the manufacturing sector. Recently there was a plan for the advanced manufacturing prosperity fund, which would not only help the ailing manufacturing sector but also drive research and development for green technologies.
We believe there is much to be done. The different parties have positions as to specifically what should be done. It is not my intention, nor I believe my colleagues' intention, to support this motion as it is. We do support the intent of it. I would be prepared to propose either a friendly amendment or, depending on the state of Mr. Lessard's countenance, perhaps an unfriendly amendment. I won't do that now. We'll perhaps see where the debate goes.
We support the intent of the motion, but we want to recommend to the government that they do more. We want to make it clear that we think the response to date has been inadequate. We don't necessarily want to slip the Bloc Québécois platform on this into the motion. We wouldn't support that. We want to show our commitment to doing more for the manufacturing sector.