Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Minister, I would like to continue talking to you about the forestry industry.
Earlier, you had a bit of a difference of opinion with my colleague about the expression “elbows up”. To a francophone, elbows up means drinking to forget, and that is not what we want for forestry workers.
I want to come back to something rather essential. There is a proposal that has been around for a while that was made by people from Chantiers Chibougamau, which you just mentioned, Domtar and the major unions in Quebec.
As you know, nearly $12 billion in countervailing and anti-dumping duties are lying dormant at the border right now. It was proposed that the government buy back some of those amounts. I understand that is a big pill for the government to swallow, but these people are trying to compromise. What they are currently proposing is that the government buy back 50% of the countervailing and anti-dumping duties at the end of every month, which would allow them to continue to have access to the market and protect the jobs in question.
We know very well that the forestry industry is a big chain. As soon as one link in the chain is cut, it becomes very difficult to maintain the entire ecosystem. These people are concerned because what is happening now is equivalent to cutting multiple links in the chain. I therefore think that this is a reasonable suggestion that does not go against our trade agreements because there are hedge funds that are buying back these duties.
I would like to hear your comments on that. What do you think about this proposal?