Thank you so very much for that question.
In response to this latest review, we have certainly said to the United States that an increase would really be equivalent to a tax on the American consumer and the American home builder. We will continue to make this argument, while at the same time defending the industry through the appropriate channels.
It's also really important to highlight that while we are defending these actions, we are also working with the industry, and have been, starting from when we first got here as government. When the first U.S. duties were imposed in 2017, we invested $867 million on a softwood lumber action plan, and in budget 2019 we added another $250 million over three years. During COVID-19, 8,500 firms in the forest sector benefited from the Canada emergency wage subsidy so that they could keep workers on the payroll. That was about a $600-million support.
We're also helping accelerate the adoption of transformative technologies and products that the sector itself is working on. This is through an $82-million investment to help the sector accelerate and to transform through the forest industry transformation program. There's another $12 million specifically for economic opportunities for indigenous communities in the forest sector.
We're working whole of government, certainly with the sector—