Thank you.
I want to pick up on what Mr. Holder was saying in terms of the softwood lumber.
If I may repeat your words, they were “apply pressure...to do what it wants”, Mr. Moen. I think that's what you just said a minute ago .
We're working very hard on this side to make sure that we comply with, for example, the rules, etc. It wasn't easy to leave a billion Canadian dollars behind last time. It wasn't easy. It was a difficult situation. I remember chairing the committee prior to our chairman here. It was very difficult.
There's a question my constituents are always asking me. I don't have a constituency that has the lumber industry, but I have a constituency that cares overall about what happens, either in the western part of Canada or in the eastern part of Canada, and in Ontario as well, wherever the lumber industry is. Here we have a rules-based agreement. We have an agreement, yet again, with this new administration—it's just a comment—we're having a lot of pressure applied, as Mr. Holder just alluded to. It seems to me that this administration is about to be influenced. I hope that on our side we can stand firm with what we've agreed upon and move on. That's just a comment.
I'm concerned. I want you to help me respond to my constituents. In Mr. Stephenson's comments, he said that “Canada and the United States must continue to work together to promote the recovery and the strengthening of our economies”. Who's kidding whom? And I don't blame them: they're out there and they have a mess. There's 8% less, I think it is, from last month, as was discussed in terms of business reporting an 8% drop in December sales. That's a lot.
We know, at least in my constituency, that the Americans are going to look after their home first, as we're trying to look after our home, but if you can explain this to me, there are circumstances, whether it's in auto or other industries, that need to be addressed first on their side before we can start addressing them on our side. Is that the case, do you think? I named the auto industry. Are there other industries that you can talk to us about?