The timing of this is a little strange; we were no longer at the beginning of this dispute, but rather close to the end.
Even if we had gone to the U.S. courts, we thought that by the end of next year the matter would be settled. When there is a judgment from a U.S. court, the government has no choice but to enforce it. It is not at all like the NAFTA judgments, for example, which the government can choose to implement or not. Contempt of court exists in the United States just as it does in Canada.
Some very important decisions are about to be handed down, and this explains in part why the Americans were so eager to settle this matter. There is also a political will in Canada to get this matter settled quickly so as to improve our relations with the United States.
This is not the first time that the softwood lumber industry has been subjected to such political will. In 1986, we had entered into an agreement to stop the investigation at a stage far less advanced than it is at the moment, because the two governments did not want to have this softwood lumber issue on the table when they were negotiating or were starting to negotiate NAFTA, which is a much broader issue.
I think that to some extent the softwood lumber industry has suffered because of the political will in Canada to improve our relations with the United States.