I'll do my best.
Thank you very much for your questions, Mr. LeBlanc.
In terms of the current state of affairs in the remanufacturers, the member is correct. Over the dispute period, generally Canadian exports to the United States have been setting record highs and taking record-high prices as well. Unfortunately for the Canadian independent remanufacturers, it's been the exact opposite.
There are three factors that really give rise to the situation.
One, the tax right now, or the duties, are being collected on entry value as opposed to on a first mill value. What this means is that if a remanufacturer buys a $10 piece of 2x4 and further processes it and adds labour and transportation, by the time it gets to the border it's $15, let's say, and he's taxed at the $15 rate.
The second problem that's giving rise to this imbalance is duty pricing and practices. What's happening is that, for example, a producer in Toronto would be paying roughly the same price and sends duty in to remanufacturers in Buffalo. So what that means is the competitors on the Buffalo side have an innate advantage--just straight-out pricing.
The third factor that's giving rise to this imbalance is the fact that, over the dispute period, primaries have attempted to bolster their exports and ordered to make a bigger claim on the quota, so this has negatively impacted the availability of supply here in Canada.
So those three factors--the entry value, the duty and pricing practices, and the incentive for primaries to export as much as possible--have given rise to the large imbalance. That's reflected in the statistics, again. At the start of the dispute, remanufacturers accounted for between 7% and 10% of Canada's total exports, and now they're down to less than 3%.
In terms of the fair share of resources, we think that the government's funding levels speak for themselves. The government has provided well over $30 million in industry assistance. Our group has received very little of that. We don't have any legal representation. We have one lawyer in Washington who works part-time on our affairs. As Mr. Béland mentioned, it's resulted in the fact that some of our legal points have been lost in the shuffle, and therefore some of our legal rights have been forfeited in the process.
In terms of remanufacturers' differences between non-independent or tenure-holding remanufacturers...the bottom line is, if you have tenure, you're not an independent remanufacturer; you're effectively a primary processor. So we believe that the government has to hold that line. To hold tenure is a choice that companies make. If they want the independent status, we believe that all companies can take the business decision to turn that tenure back over.
Finally, in terms of what we would like to see, in fact, our sector does have a solution, and it's unanimously supported across our operations across the country. We want to implement a pilot project, based on the maritime model. We'd like to implement a certificate of origin program to assist U.S. Customs process exports from independent remanufacturers here in Canada. We believe this will help weed out circumvention, and in addressing American concerns on circumvention, I think it is the first step to having this group of producers' exports enter the U.S. without issue.
It's important to note that you've heard many different comments about legalities. The reality is that no legal victory will help this group of producers in Canada. No legal victories are really required, as technically they have no formal allegations against them. They don't participate in the programs at the core of the dispute. This has been certified by the provinces and the federal government. Effectively, they're just trapped in this, and until there's a will to move forward and move this group out, we're victims. The reality is that we can't afford to stay in this dispute any longer. That's why we strongly encourage the government to get a deal and deliver it for the industry.
I hope I've addressed some of your issues.
Perhaps Mr. Béland has something to add.