Mr. Speaker, I would like to say, as is my wont, that I am very pleased to take part in this debate. The pleasure is, however, lessened by the gravity of the situation facing us at this time.
I would like to say, for the benefit of our viewers, some of whom probably could not sleep and were channel surfing and happened to come upon us on the parliamentary channel, some of whom found nothing else of interest to watch at this late hour, and those who are such great fans of the dry debates that are held in the House of Commons that they have chosen to follow us at this late hour, that if, indeed they do find their MPs in session at such a late hour, it is because circumstances have forced it.
What we are taking part in at this time is what the Standing Orders call an emergency debate, one requested and allowed because of the gravity of the situation on the issue of softwood lumber, with the United States.
This guerrilla warfare, if I may call it that, which the Americans are waging on the Canadian softwood industry, is nothing new. It is, to all intents and purposes, one which saw the light of day in the early 1980s, around 1982 to be exact. That was before the Canada-U.S. free trade agreement and NAFTA.
Since then, the United States has never stopped harassing Canadian softwood lumber producers by claiming, most of the time erroneously, that Canadian businesses were subsidized, and consequently they needed to impose countervailing duties, antidumping duties. At this time, we are experiencing the latest sortie in this guerrilla warfare that has been waged for some years.
It is surprising that the United States has decided, once again, to attack Canada, the Canadian softwood lumber industry, given the particular circumstances in which we find ourselves at the present time.
As a result of the tragic events of September 11, one might have expected a much more conciliatory attitude on the part of the Americans to the nations around the world that responded to their appeal to join in the fight against terrorism.
One might have expected that the U.S. would ensure its allies did not suffer an economic backlash in this situation, where we need a strong and solid economy behind us. One might have expected, given the economic indicators pointing, in both the States and Canada, to a major downturn in the economy necessitating—the American government announced investments on the order of $100 billion—major work.
One might have expected, in this context, that they would not want to be without any resource Canada could offer in terms of lumber, knowing that south of the border major projects would be undertaken to offset the effects of the economic downturn.
And yet, the United States has decided to once again go after the Canadian lumber industry. The agreement Canada finally concluded with the Americans in 1996 was not very favourable to the Canadian lumber industry and especially to that of Quebec.
However, under the terms of this agreement, one would expect that we could return to total free trade in lumber. Yet the United States decided to impose countervailing duties of 19.3% in August.
We are now faced with new duties of 12.58 %, anti-dumping duties this time, in addition to the ones levied by the United States last August.
These are totally unacceptable decisions because, over many years, the Canadian industry adapted progressively, if I may say so, to deal with the complaints of the American producers. It may have been true a few years ago the Canadian industry could have been accused of receiving subsidies or of being indirectly subsidized by the government, but I think we can reasonably say now that the Canadian lumber industry and the Quebec lumber industry are not subsidized.
Therefore, the American decision is totally unfounded. Particularly since a free trade agreement exists between the two countries. We then have to expect and demand that the Canadian government strongly intervene in this issue. This has to be done at the highest levels. The Prime Minister has to deal directly with the President of the United States.
As the hon. member for Lac-Saint-Jean--Saguenay mentioned earlier, we must also get all the producers and stakeholders involved. Already, for a number of months now, since the crisis resurfaced in April, producers have been kept in the dark. They are not informed of what is going on. They are asking to be consulted. They want to be allowed to make a contribution, to comment and to make suggestions so that we can solve this crisis.
The impact of the decisions made by the United States on the Canadian and Quebec softwood lumber industry should not be underestimated. Thousands and even tens of thousands of jobs are at stake. Our industries' profits are at stake. The U.S. government is hitting very hard, and unjustifiably so, one of its most loyal allies in the fight against terrorism. This is what makes this decision all the more unacceptable.
In Quebec, we are talking about 40,000 jobs. There are 40,000 jobs that are directly and indirectly related to the softwood lumber industry. In Canada, it is 130,000 jobs. The softwood lumber industry injects over $4 billion a year into the Quebec economy.
So what is happening now must not be taken lightly. As I was saying earlier, we must demand that the Canadian government pursue this matter vigorously. In the meantime, until we can settle this issue with the United States once and for all, we must also ask the Government of Canada to be understanding, to show some compassion toward the workers who have already been affected by the U.S. decision or who will be affected by it in the next few days or the next few weeks.
In times of economic downturn, or should I say in times of economic growth such as we had over the last few years, the Canadian government was able to get away with changing the employment insurance plan and accumulating huge surpluses without having a decisive impact, although the impact was significant.
I should remind members that four out of ten unemployed workers who had paid premiums qualified for benefits. In times of economic growth where job creation is occurring, the adverse effects are somewhat lessened. But there is an economic downturn, it is important that the government realize that its EI reform has had and will have even more adverse effects that will penalize the unemployed.
We are therefore calling on the government to make a certain number of changes to the EI system, as recommended by the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development in its unanimous report.
In conclusion, I would urge the Canadian government to take action and if, as I hope, they are following the debate now taking place, I urge the American authorities to be more receptive to the message from Canadian authorities. On that note, we can only hope for the best.