Thank you for being here.
I represent the riding of Abitibi—Témiscamingue. Need I remind you that we have experienced the softwood lumber crisis? To give you an idea of the context, Abitibi lumber would make its way to the Outaouais region to be processed by the CIP. We emptied out our forests. We have a company called Tembec.
I listened intently to Mr. de la Roche. My position is clear. We don't need a summit. The people around this table who believe we still need a summit are wasting their time. We know about the solutions. The problem is the fear of implementing them. When are we going to stop selling 2X4s to the United States? When will we stop using cement, brick and metal in our buildings?
You were referring to Finland; I will tell you about Sweden and Norway. I went there, as president of the international cycling association. I travelled around, and they are forced to build infrastructure out of wood. Tembec just invented and patented a new product. It takes two to three years to do research and development. I fully agree with Mr. de la Roche. It takes two to three years to set up a new product. Tembec just discovered this. What it needs at this point is to stop selling 2X4s and set up a factory to build wood structures out of biofibre.
We are not trying to blame the current government nor the previous one, but we want it to get involved. The only thing we are asking for is to stop being impervious to the situation in the regions. Clearly more mills are going to shut down, and I think the union is well aware of this.
What do we do in the here and now to stop looking back and start looking forward? What is the solution? That is the question I ask of each one of you: if you had to implement one solution immediately, what would it be? Forget about the cost and imagine there is no limit. What would you like to see implemented immediately, regardless of cost?