Madam Speaker, in summary, I think there are several issues at stake which all members of the House, especially the members on the government side, should be aware of.
The reason I worded the motion to deal with forest products with bark and needles attached, specifically relating to the Christmas tree industry, is that there has never been a proven link between the Christmas tree industry and the introduction of pinewood nematode into Europe.
For members here today who may not be completely cognizant of this issue, pinewood nematode is a parasite that lives in the gut of wood boring insects such as the sawyer beetle. That was the reasoning behind European plant protection measures asking to identify bore holes in the wood. They thought if the vector was not there or the insect was not in the wood that would reduce the incidence of transmission.
I deliberately spoke about the value of the lumber industry and the potential to transmit pinewood nematode to Europe versus the Christmas tree area of this motion.
I want to state this once again. The reason the motion is made on Christmas trees is that Christmas trees should not have the same classification as lumber. I will deal with the lumber issue in a minute. Christmas trees are a separate issue. There has never been a proven link by plant health Canada or by the European plant protection agencies that they can transmit pinewood nematode into the European forest. Therefore we should be opening that door in order to get the rest of our lumber supplies into Europe.
I would like to make a few comments on the government's actions since December 1996. I am in agreement that the government has instigated a study. The lumber suppliers I have talked to have felt that the studies have been bogged down and that there is no heart on behalf of our scientists to push this as a real relative issue into Europe. They feel there is definitely something we should be doing here. As parliamentarians and as people who represent our constituencies and the rest of the nation, it is our job to bring those points forward.
There are a couple of things we need to understand. Plant health Canada spent $800,000 on a study to prove that heat treating eliminated pinewood nematode in our forest products. There is a big difference between heat treating and kiln drying. The European plant protection organization enforces the kiln drying law. Kiln drying is a longer process. It is much more expensive. There is no comparison in the two processes. The only certification we get out of kiln drying is when we put the kiln dried seal on a piece of lumber it certifies that there is less than 20% moisture content in it. There is no certification of heat. There is nothing else there. It is strictly a certification of moisture content.
The least we should accept for the Canadian lumber industry is the certification of heat treating which would be a lot cheaper and would allow our product to go to Europe without that extra cost of kiln drying.
The other point I do not think we can speak enough to, and I realize I have only five minutes, is that we have traded with Europe since the Vikings were here in the 10th century. We have traded with Europe for 500 years of recorded trade. If there is any danger of transference of pinewood nematode into the forests of Europe, surely this House would agree it is there now.
We have never had any significant studies by the European plant health organization that it is not already there. It has not proven to us that it does not already have the problem. If it does, it is not a foreign pest. It is a cross-border pest and the plant health organization regulations would not apply.
Look at our history of trade with Europe. We used to ship millions of board feet of lumber across the ocean in log barges with the bark attached. We have exported Christmas trees to Europe for 75 years. The last market to fall was when Italy joined the common market in the early 1990s. Until that time we sold Christmas trees to Italy.
All of a sudden the door closed. They said no, now that we have signed a piece of paper, we have a trade agreement, we are a member of the European Union, your treaties are no longer acceptable. Nothing changed. They were not a threat the day before, they were not a threat the day after.
In conclusion, I would like once again to ask for the unanimous consent of the House to make this motion votable.