Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time tonight with my colleague from Delta--South Richmond.
I am pleased to take part in yet another emergency debate on the state of Canada's softwood lumber industry. It seems that this is becoming a habit and one I might add which we would all do well to kick. While we are all here still talking about the state of our industry, there are thousands of workers back in my riding of Skeena in northern B.C. and all over Canada who are waiting for the Liberal government to put an end to the talking and start taking some action.
Last week we received the news that the U.S. was imposing yet another duty on Canadian softwood lumber being shipped into the U.S. This now takes the amount of duty on Canadian softwood lumber to over 30%, 31.5% to be exact. The U.S. government is saying that this duty is being imposed because Canadians are dumping lumber into the U.S. market at cut-rate prices.
The head of Canada's largest lumber producer, Mr. David Emerson, has been quoted in several papers over the past week saying how bitterly disappointed he is at Ottawa's foot dragging. Imagine that, foot dragging. He is wondering why this has not been placed on the Liberal government's priority list when it is a situation that affects so many people and communities across Canada. Of course we all understand that after the attacks of September 11, both Canada and the U.S. have been focusing on national security. However it seems curious that the U.S. has put its lumber lobby back in motion and our government is unable to look at more than one problem at a time.
Mr. Emerson went on to wonder what if this were a problem that was facing the auto industry, the aerospace industry or perhaps even Bombardier or a split run magazine. Then would the government be on flights back and forth between the two countries getting the matter cleared up quickly? It is very likely. This is something I brought up in my very first take note debate which took place at the end of March. We in the official opposition were begging the Minister for International Trade and the Prime Minister to do something to protect Canadian interests before the agreement expired at the end of March. Yet here we are once again.
This is getting to be like a bad dream. It is sad to think that everyone else seems to see the urgency of this matter, everyone that is but the government. It seems willing to jump through hoops to help Bombardier win contracts to the point that it is given guaranteed loans and now has put us in trouble with the WTO.
Will the government help out with the lumber industry? All one has to do to see how much the federal Liberals are willing to help is look at comments made in the House of Commons. The latest slap in the face to British Columbians is when the member for London--Fanshawe stood up and had the audacity to call the British Columbia lumber industry nervous Nellies. It is really nice to have government on one's side although it is obvious that British Columbia will have to wait for that day to come and it will probably take a change in the members on the other side of the House.
I suggest that the government should take a look at its exports and see how much income lumber really does generate for the Canadian economy. Surely the government will fight these duties at the WTO and that is great, except that the World Trade Organization will take years before it will reach a ruling on this. We do not have that kind of time. While the WTO lumbers around taking a kick at the can, Canadians go jobless.
We understand that we have to go through channels, that any help that is given has to be done very carefully so that the U.S. does not misconstrue it as a government subsidy. God knows, we do not need further action to be taken against us but it would be nice to know if the Liberals here in Ottawa have any plan to help the workers that are depending on them now. Is there a plan to do anything to help them out when their mills get shut down?
It sometimes makes me wonder about trade laws. At the U.S. government website for the Department of Commerce there is a link that shows the cases the U.S. is charging with countervailing duties and anti-dumping. The cases are listed by country. In fact there are 29 of these cases against Canada alone. If that is not protectionism, then I do not know what is. There are 17 countries listed on that site and on the WTO site there are many more. Countries have made complaints to the WTO about this unfair protectionist law the U.S. has. We cannot go on like this any longer.
We are supposed to have free trade. We signed the agreement with the U.S. and are in talks to expand it to the hemisphere. What can we expect to come as new protectionist laws when the area is expanded? What will be the next target? Will the newly signed partners take a page from U.S. trade law? Not to be a fearmonger but it is very disconcerting when we think of what could or may happen.
This issue should have been dealt with from the beginning when NAFTA was signed. This is a point that cannot be made enough. Since we do not yet have the technology to go back in time, we will be unable to fix the situation that way.
The government should fix the mistakes made by the government of that day. The duties facing Canadian producers are crushing and they need help. We need a government that will stand up and help.
In British Columbia we are facing these duties, the shutdown of mills and the layoff of workers. To top it off, British Columbia lumber is threatened by an infestation of bugs. For those members who not know what these are, let me inform the House.
Over the past year the mountain pine beetle outbreak in the west central plateau of British Columbia has increased fourfold affecting just under 300,000 hectares of forest in that area. This tiny black insect, native to North America, burrows into lodge pole pine and transmits a blue stain fungi that can destroy the connective tissues within a tree and lower the grade of lumber. This in turn reduces the market value. All we have to do to see the vast destruction is to fly over the province. Where we see green below, those are healthy trees; where we see a red tinge, that is the work of the mountain pine beetle.
With the knowledge of the destruction these beetles cause, one would think the federal government would take some action, but in a recent report published by the Department of Natural Resources this topic only got a tiny mention, just one small paragraph, in fact 13 lines. When we thumb through the rest of the report called “The State of Canada's Forests”, we will find that the tall bugbane gets as much mention and the night snake gets a longer write-up than the mountain pine beetle.
This shows where the Liberal government places the forest industry on its priority list. Chalk this up as yet one more item the Liberals here in Ottawa are not putting any brainpower behind, but I digress.
I would be very interested to know what action our government is taking to help the four B.C. lumber companies and two Quebec companies that have been the target of these new duties and the industry as a whole.
From the time that the first duty was levied against us, which by the way excluded the Atlantic region, we have lost 18,000 jobs in the lumber industry in B.C. It is expected that with this new duty there will be an additional 12,000 layoffs before Christmas. Will that not make for a merry Christmas for families who work in forestry.
I think I speak for the majority of loggers, mill workers and owners and all those who are fighting this ridiculous situation that the Liberal government has allowed our forest industry to fall into when I say enough is enough, it is time to take some action. It is time for these two governments to sit down and get this worked out. How many people have to go jobless? How many mills need to be shut down? How many more times do we have to sit in this place and listen to the Prime Minister say he will talk to the president about this? How many more times are we the opposition going to have to stand and beg the federal government to help our citizens and our industry? How much more money do we need to give the U.S. lumber interests before our government, our protector, will start working to help Canadian citizens and our forest resource based economy?
This situation must be resolved. No more waffling. Our forest industry workers need an early Christmas present. The Prime Minister and the U.S. president need to get together and resolve this issue on a free trade basis now.