As we ramrod this bill through, with all of these punitive measures, we have a situation where essentially a monthly trigger volume is triggered at 101%. How easy is it to do that? Well, given the various penalities that are imposed in this bill, Mr. Chair, it is very easy—exceedingly easy—for any company or any exports to exceed that monthly trigger volume.
That's what the companies were crying out for this summer in the hearings we held, Mr. Chair. Company after company said this deal would not work, that it was not commercially viable. One of the clear reasons why it is not commercially viable, Mr. Chair, is that the trigger volume is triggered immediately.
Just think, for example. You're a softwood company in British Company. If you're one of the independent lumber manufacturers left after this disastrous decision to redefine tenure, you'll sell a product—let's say you're selling your product in the same region where a bigger company decides to impose or export a larger than normal quota.
Then everybody's penalized. In fact, it becomes a race to the border to see who can get their quota out quickly, because once we reach the trigger point that is imposed, the penalities start to fall into place. So a small company from northern British Columbia that is trying to export its lumber through no fault of its own sees itself penalized the way virtually every softwood company is penalized by this bad bill and this bad agreement.
Currently in the bill we have 101% as the trigger volume. What we're proposing by way of an amendment is that the trigger volume not be 101%, but rather 200%.
What does that do, Mr. Chair? What it does is give a comfort level for the trigger volume, so that small companies aren't engaged or entrained into that ridiculous series of punitive measures, including up to 18 months in prison, that come from the later punitive aspects of this bill.
We'll have time tomorrow morning, maybe, or tomorrow afternoon to go through all of the punitive measures that are contained within this bill; there's no doubt about that. However, the reality is this is excessively punitive. It's a hairpin trigger, and we know what kind of disaster can be entrained from a hairpin trigger that is set off almost automatically. We have to provide a margin of safety for that hairpin trigger. We have to provide a margin that does allow the softwood companies to export.