Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses for their opening remarks.
Mr. Laplante, I'd like to know whether I am summarizing your remarks by saying that, ultimately, the situation we're currently experiencing with the United States is a vast array of missed opportunities.
Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. The Americans are anything but crazy, but they do keep losing their cases. Their true calculus is happening elsewhere—undermining our competitiveness, delaying our modernization and putting us in a loss position while the case drags on, even though they know, and fully expect, that they will eventually lose.
You said yourself that the Quebec regime was specifically designed to comply with free trade. So I wonder how it remains unacknowledged to this day.
In addition, your colleague said that the dispute settlement mechanism hadn't really been called into question and hadn't been sufficiently overhauled in the Canada—United States—Mexico Agreement, or CUSMA.
You also mentioned construction and industrial policy. What would be the purpose?
Would it be diversifying markets or would it be another way of investing more in the domestic market?
What are the advantages of using wood more than concrete, for example? It seems like a green material to me. Moreover, the forest industry is no longer as portrayed in the film produced by Richard Desjardins. There have been significant changes.
I'm opening up a number of avenues for discussion so you can flesh out your opening remarks.