Let's be clear here. We heard witnesses with respect to the April 27th framework agreement. The agreement signed on July 1st does not contain the same wording as the April 27th agreement. So, we would like to hear the views of certain witnesses in this regard.
Following that, it is my hope that the Canadian and U.S. governments will reopen their negotiations with a view to meeting the concerns that have been expressed. We can then talk about the legislation to be tabled in Parliament. We all hope that the negotiations will lead to a lasting peace. However, we cannot help but note that there have been changes.
I would like to cite the example of the Conseil de l'industrie forestière du Québec, which supported the April 27th agreement. This is what the Council's members had to say about the July 1st agreement in the letter they sent to Prime Minister Harper:
[...] our industry believes that the agreement signed by your government and the U.S. government is not acceptable in its current form. CIFQ members clearly expressed that view at the special general meeting held on July 11, 2006.
That is quite significant. In order for a council that supported the initial agreement to no longer support it after July 1st, there must be new features that are inconsistent with their understanding of the agreement. That is exactly what we want to ascertain.
If, as we are hoping, the Committee were to make recommendations to the government that it acted on, and we were to arrive at an agreement that all the various councils and associations across the provinces could support, rest assured that the Bloc Québécois would be very happy to be able to support the legislation coming forward. But that is not the case at this time. I think the government needs to be enlightened as to how to resolve this matter. For the time being, it is a complete dead end. I don't see how the government could introduce legislation regarding an agreement that has been rejected by the four main forestry associations.
What we are preparing to do is not redundant. There is new information here, and we want to find out why and how we can correct the situation, in order to arrive at an agreement that the industry as a whole and provincial governments consider satisfactory.