Mr. Speaker, I rise once again on behalf of the New Democratic Party and Canadians everywhere who have a stake and an interest in our forestry industry. I call on the Liberal government to start standing up to the bullying U.S. tariffs that are devastating companies, communities and families that depend on the forest industry.
It gives me a slight feeling of déjà vu to be taking part in yet another emergency debate on the issue in the House of Commons. It was exactly one month and two days ago that we last had an emergency debate in the form of an opposition day motion on the issue. It is disappointing that in the month since the Liberal government has continued to do what it has done all along: sit on its hands and do nothing.
So little has changed that I could take a copy of the Hansard from last month's debate, read back my comments word for word, and they would still be relevant and timely. What an indictment of members of the Liberal government. Despite this they continue to insist they are working hard on the file, as though if they repeat it enough people will start to believe it.
We in the New Democratic Party are not fooled by the Liberal government's empty talk. Neither are Canadians who work in the forestry industry and have to deal with the fallout of the government's inaction.
While the Liberal government has been sitting on its hands the U.S. government has been very busy. Last week it slapped yet another massive tariff on Canadian softwood lumber, bringing the total tariff on our forest products to over 30%.
It is outrageous when we think about it. Canadian softwood products entering the U.S. are slapped with this huge tax and then supposed to compete on the shelves next to U.S. products. Obviously that is almost impossible. That is why many Canadian forestry companies are facing huge losses and we are seeing thousands of layoffs in the sector. It is something our economy can ill afford as we slide into a recession.
The Liberal government's passive laissez-faire attitude is stunningly irresponsible. Days before the U.S. slapped on the new tariff last week we had reports that it would happen. We knew it was coming. The day before it was announced by the U.S. government I asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for International Trade in question period if the government would put an income support plan in place to help people whose jobs would be affected. The parliamentary secretary dismissed my question as hypothetical. The next day of course the hammer dropped.
What are we supposed to take from that? Was the government so clueless that it did not see this coming? Did the parliamentary secretary think I was asking a hypothetical question, or did he see it coming and not want to deal with the issue of assistance for the people losing their jobs? Either way it is of little comfort to the people wondering how they will pay their mortgages because the Liberal government is not standing up for them.
The government says it is pursuing a two track approach to the dispute with the United States. First, its lawyers are challenging the U.S. tariffs in a World Trade Organization tribunal. Second, it says it and the provinces are negotiating with the United States.
This is something but it is clearly not enough. The provincial governments which the Minister for International Trade claims are his negotiating partners are expressing a distinct lack of confidence in the federal government's handling of the issue.
The government of British Columbia has so little confidence in the federal Liberal government that it is exploring the possibility of making a side deal with the United States. This is something none of us want to see. It is crucial that the federal and provincial governments stand together and show a united front to the U.S.
I asked the Minister for International Trade about this last week in question period. He agreed about the need for a united front. What the minister apparently does not understand is that for the federal government to maintain a united front it must inspire confidence in the provincial governments. The provincial governments must be convinced the federal government is handling the crisis competently or they will be tempted to go off and cut deals.
The cracks that are starting to show in the federal-provincial coalition are a clear signal that the federal Liberal government is dropping the ball. Its provincial negotiating partners are not confident in its ability to reach an appropriate solution. The federal government is thus having big trouble holding the coalition together.
The people and companies affected by the dispute do not have confidence in the Liberal government's handling of the crisis either. People with families to feed and mortgages to pay who find themselves out of work are the real losers in this regard.
I would like to read from a letter that was sent to one of our national newspapers by Val George of Terrace, B.C. because it speaks volume about how the people affected by this view the Liberal government's response so far. The letter mentions one of our colleagues in the House of Commons by name so where it does that I will just substitute the member's title. The letter in the November 5 National Post states:
[The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for International Trade's] calling some B.C. lumber executives “nervous nellies” for being concerned about the softwood lumber issue is despicable. Would he like to come out to British Columbia and tell the more than 10,000 laid-off workers in the forest products industry that those who are defending their interests are being overly concerned? If he were to come out here, he would discover that it is attitudes like his toward western Canada's issues that are the reason for this government being held in contempt in the region of the country that generates a large proportion of the country's wealth.
Instead of making such insensitive comments, [the parliamentary secretary] should be urging his bosses, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Trade, to give this matter the priority it deserves. Come to think of it, perhaps he should tell them that they should have been giving the softwood lumber issue some priority four or five years ago, in which case we might not now be faced with this devastating situation.
That pretty much says it all because that is exactly what has been coming out for the last while. The Liberal government has left this so long, instead of dealing with the issue ahead of time. Now we are in a situation of absolute crisis within the industry.
I would like to talk about solutions in my last couple of minutes. I talked about the need for long term solutions in the last emergency debate so I will not use up my time repeating them. The New Democratic Party is on the record about this but one of the things the letter mentioned was the number of laid off workers in B.C. alone.
For months my fellow New Democrat MPs and I have been calling on the Liberal government to provide some assistance to those people who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. The government has slashed EI so much in the past few years that people who get laid off cannot rely on it to get them through the hard times anymore. That is the case not just in the forestry industry, but in all industries. We have brought this up time and time again over the last number of years with little results from the government. It would much rather use the dollars going into the EI fund as a general revenue slush fund for the finance minister to make it look like there is a huge surplus when in reality there is a huge social deficit within Canada to laid off and unemployed workers.
The Liberal government should take some responsibility for the fact that it was its failure to deal effectively with the U.S. that resulted in these layoffs. Instead it just says that people should be patient. It is hard for them to be patient when they do not know how they will pay their bills next month.
If the government would provide some temporary income support to these people until the dispute is resolved at least it would look like it cared. That is what Canadians need from the government right now, they need it to care. They do not need the patronizing comments on how they just need to plug on through, how they need to be patient and how they are overly concerned. No one needs that.
We need some absolute effort from the government to support the industry. There are a number of ways of doing that. I will not mention the amount of business we have in exports to the U.S. However now is an absolute crucial time for the government to come forward with a national housing strategy to support our industry. We could pour more dollars than we have into housing. Just over $1 billion per year for ten years would address the total housing concerns in our country nationwide, in our aboriginal communities and in our urban communities. This is the time for the government to do that and show that it is supporting the industry as well as supporting Canadians.