Mr. Speaker, thousands of letters have been sent to B.C. MPs to urge the government to strongly oppose the U.S. attempt to restrict the import of specialty wood products by reclassifying them as softwood lumber.
When lumber was freely traded, we paid duties on these very same specialty products. Now these duties are phased out because of NAFTA but lumber is no longer freely traded because of restrictions brought in by the 1996 softwood lumber quota system.
Specialty wood products are a $3 billion industry for Canada. We need the strongest political action from our government to oppose new restrictions.
So far, the Liberals are just going through the motions and responding to U.S. measures on technical grounds alone.
We need strong political representation. When can we expect to see the government giving this issue the political priority it deserves?