Mr. Chairman, the first thing we did when the Conservative government took office was to settle the softwood lumber dispute which had been poisoning the forest industry for more than a decade. That is what we did. Contrary to what the member of the Official Opposition has been saying, we invested considerable sums of money: $1 billion to support communities, and $1 billion to develop greener paper mills. There were also specific programs introduced, assistance for workers and industry restructuring.
So, could we do more? Yes, Mr. Chairman. Have we taken concrete action? Yes, Mr. Chairman. And colleagues on this side of the table supported those measures, unlike Bloc members who opposed specific initiatives to support the industry and workers. I find that totally unacceptable.
Having said that, I have a few questions for Mr. Paterson.
Mr. Paterson, we are here today to review the forest industry's current situation. As we know, Amazon sells more electronic books than it does paper books. There is a future for books and paper, but we know that the market is struggling. We agree with that and you yourself made that point.
I have a question for you. You mentioned that, under your emergence plan, you are expecting to continue to operate 19 plants, including 12 in Canada and 5 in Quebec. First of all, when do you expect to arrive at some resolution? Can you confirm when you expect to arrive at a resolution and implement that action plan?