Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome, Minister Emerson, to the committee.
First, Minister, I think as a member of Parliament from Atlantic Canada, in all fairness, if the government were going to sign an agreement that was essential, one thing is that the historic circumstances of the Atlantic be protected. The industry in my part of the country feels that your government, like the previous government, respected this historic exemption. I think that's worth outlining by way of introduction.
The one thing, Minister—through you, Mr. Chairman—that I hear a lot about is a concern about the amount of time it may take for companies to see any benefit from the return of the deposits with the U.S. Treasury. If you as Minister of Industry participated in an announcement last November recognizing the urgency of the softwood situation and the threat many companies were under—risk of layoffs, financial balance sheets in very bad shape—and companies are now being told that it's going to take perhaps up to a year after a final agreement is reached before they see the money, I was hoping the government might either buy the receivables these companies will have or guarantee them, since the $1.5 billion aid package last fall is off the table. In the interim, until they can see some of this deposit money returned, there will be more job losses and mills operating in very difficult circumstances.
I'm wondering if the government has plans to expedite the return of that money.