Madam Chairman, I thank the member for Vancouver Island North for the leadership he has provided on the issue of softwood lumber. It is clear that on this side of the House we have consistently urged the government to be proactive as we have been urging this government to take action.
I am very pleased to represent the softwood lumber producers of not only my riding of Renfrew--Nipissing--Pembroke and eastern Ontario but of all Ontario in this debate. Rural Ontario has been without a voice in Ottawa since 1993. In fact, rural Canada has been under assault by this government since it was elected.
Jobs have been disappearing at an alarming rate in rural Ontario. The need to keep jobs in the lumber industry to maintain our way of life is paramount.
The government needs to re-orient its priorities and jump at the first sign of trouble in the same way that it jumps when the presidents of large corporations, like Canada Steamship Lines and Bombardier, call when looking for government assistance. The big difference is that, unlike the friends of the government who are big multinational corporations looking for handouts, the softwood lumber industry in my riding is characterized by small operations, many family owned, and by people who are not looking for handouts, just fair treatment.
The Liberal government's softwood lumber policy is causing significant unemployment in my riding. Worried softwood lumber producers call my office on a regular basis with the hope that a resolution regarding this crisis can be found. Families with their principal breadwinner unemployed wonder how they are going to survive the winter.
In rural areas jobs are hard to come by. Ben Hokum and Son Ltd. in Killaloe, Murray Brothers in Madawaska, Gulick Forest Products Ltd. and Thomas J. Newman Ltd. in Palmer Rapids, and Bell Lumber in Renfrew are just a few of the businesses in my riding affected by this softwood lumber dispute.
It is clear this softwood lumber crisis could have been avoided. We all knew the softwood lumber agreement would expire when it did last March. If the minister had been paying the slightest attention he would have known that the American lumber industry was pushing for countervailing duties. The government talks now of building alliances with American consumers and other interested groups to fight the countervailing duty imposed on the industry. This should have been done long before we hit this crisis.
The government has a lousy record when dealing with a crisis. Whether it be Canada's response to the terrorist attack of September 11 or the current crisis with softwood lumber, the government lunges leaderless in every direction and the people pay the price with unemployment lines.
Softwood lumber is big business in Ontario, exporting $2 billion worth of goods annually and employing 20,000 people directly, many of whom work in eastern Ontario. The gross regional income of the central and eastern Ontario economy is $5 billion annually in the forestry industry alone. The region employs 133,000 people. In the Ottawa valley the forest industry supports nearly 4,500 jobs. That translates into 2,055 direct jobs, which is 19.3% of regional goods producing sector employment, over 1,000 indirect regional jobs and another 1,295 indirect provincial jobs.
Primary wood manufacturing is over 10 times the provincial average. In actual dollars and cents our forest industry output is $294 million annually. I can identify over 100 forest product companies that make their home in Renfrew county.
What is even more important in this debate over softwood lumber is how it is affecting our trading relationship with the United States. For value added products, the United States market is number one in Ontario.
More than half of all forest products in Ontario is exported. Members will understand why we on this side of the House use the term crisis when we refer to the state of the Canadian softwood lumber industry. Those products have the largest export market in the United States. Exports from Ontario have increased by more than 100% since 1991.
The United States construction industry is worth nearly $700 billion U.S. every year. It will continue to be the focus of Canadian wood product shipments. It is imperative that the government respect the special trading relationship we have had in the past and priorize the need to resolve this trade dispute.