Thank you. That's a great question.
I would love the opportunity to take you, as an Ontario MP, up.... Actually we don't even have to go up north. We have perfect examples close to where you live of sawmills that are quite modern and very technologically advanced. As one example, two years ago Bowater in Thunder Bay opened a brand new sawmill. It's absolutely stunning. The technology in there is so advanced that for those who have been in older, traditional mills, it really is quite an eye opener. They invested $250 million. It's a first nations project, a partnership.
I will tell you that we don't have one sawmill that will be considered safe. It's not a question that it will be the old and antiquated mills and that the new modern mills might be safe. I think we have to realize that when we say that this agreement could have a 20% negative impact on the industry, no one wants to think that this means their own mill. But if you don't get the right quota, if you can't adjust to the tax because of the price of lumber this month, this year.... There are a lot of other complex business issues. Suggesting that if we just get our deposits back it'll all be okay.... That's not the case.
As was mentioned earlier, there are over a million cheques, and we keep hearing from everybody that customs just doesn't have the staff to put them through in a timely way. When we say we'll get our money back in 90 days, people are telling us that we're dreaming if we think we're going to get our money back even in a year. There has to be a bridge. Even if you were to put this agreement forward in a month's time, there needs to be a bridge, a mechanism, that allows these companies to last until they get the return of those deposits. It's critical.