Mr. Speaker, I am really pleased to have the opportunity to take part in this emergency debate tonight. I live in a region that has been feeling the negative impact of these decisions made by the Americans.
Particularly last weekend, everybody was asking me “What is happening with the softwood lumber issue? What can you do against the Americans? Why are they doing this?” People are wondering why the Americans are acting this way. Why did we take our case to the international tribunals? What good did it do us to take our case to the WTO and to win, if it does not change a thing?
People are getting tired of this situation where it seems that we are engaged in a battle like the one that opposed David to Goliath, a battle of the poor against the rich, the weak against the mighty. They are getting tired of seeing that we keep going back to square one and that this situation is hurting us more and more. They are wondering how things could change.
Things must change. We cannot go on like this. We must find a way of getting through this wall that is preventing us from asserting our rights.
In 1996, the government signed an agreement. As mentioned by my colleague from Joliette, it proved to be a negative agreement. It was not beneficial to Quebec and British Columbia, and it was not beneficial to Canadians.
When it expired and even before that—we knew it was due to expire on March 31, 2001—we kept asking the government “What will you do? The agreement is about to expire. We want free trade. We signed a free trade agreement and now we want it to be honoured”.
We know what has happened since that time. The American government has made decisions that are truly detrimental to us.
What conclusion should we draw from all this? We realize that Canadian officials refuse to use the word “negotiations”, as if they were afraid of it. They do not want to talk about negotiations; they say that they are having “discussions” with the U.S. government. They are discussing, and not negotiating, with the American government.
They should really be negotiating. In a negotiation system, a relationship of power is established and there is some give and take. They have to start saying to the Americans “We want to change our policy now. We have lost our sympathy for the United States. You will not get any more of our oil, our natural gas or whatever else you want”.
The Americans want our drinking water. Well we better tell them right off that if they do not give us what we want in terms of lumber, they will get nothing. Let us put that in the negotiations. This is the sort of thing we negotiate for. A negotiations mindset is required, not a defeatist or cry-baby attitude over the corner of a table. We must negotiate.
The Americans are negotiating; they have appointed a negotiator, the former governor of Montana, Marc Racicot. If there is no one opposite them to negotiate, the Americans will negotiate all by themselves. Canadians have to get it into their heads that they have to negotiate too. This is a very important attitude to have from the outset.
Without the right attitude initially or if the idea is simply to go and parley, chew the fat, talk over coffee, how will they get down to negotiations? I think this is important. Negotiations are underway, at least the Americans have started them.
The industry is unhappy about not being involved in these negotiations. It was simply told “You can roam the halls, lobby all you want around us, and entertain our court, as an industry, but we will do the negotiating”. The government sends officials to negotiate, but perhaps it should consider sending those who know which side is up.
We must therefore pursue the battle with the Americans and explain to the public that something has to happen. I have seen articles referring to a two by four war. This is an image that is very important, for the people of Canada anyway.
Everyone has seen tractor trailers on the highways hauling loads of two by fours. Very often, it might be something else but, very often, it looks like two by fours. Often they are wrapped in paper. One end is painted green and the other blue. It depends on the company.
In my area, almost everyone knows someone directly or indirectly related to a lumber worker. Lumber workers are those who work right in the forest or who transport wood from the forest to the sawmill. Some of them work in the sawmill and some of them take the resulting lumber somewhere in the United States, because that is where over 50% of our production goes.
Last summer, the hon. members for Joliette and Kamouraska--Rivière-du-Loup--Témiscouata--Les Basques and I met with the Americans. We met senators and members of congress. I must admit that I was astonished. There were several other people. There were Liberals and people from all parties. I do not think that any party was not represented—or perhaps one—but we all tried to be there because we had an interest in doing so. We were all there. As I said, we met senators, members of the house of representatives, and even lobbyists. The vice president of Home Depot was there.
These people spoke with us and understood the situation. Very often, Canadian wood is of better quality than American wood. In addition, Americans do not produce the same wood that we export to the United States. These trees do not grow in the United States.
What struck me was the complete ignorance of American parliamentarians. They understand nothing about our system and they are wrongly accusing us of subsidizing an industry when this is not the case at all. I was truly astonished to see senators say quite simply “Oh, so that is how it works.”
We must therefore develop some method for informing the staff of the U.S. department of commerce, the senators and the representatives, the ones making decisions, on how the situation is being experienced on our side of the border, so that they can at last grasp that we are not competitive with them in the least.
This we need to do. It is very important for us to eventually arrive at a solution that is to our local industry's advantage. Things cannot continue the way they are.
In my riding, at least 600 jobs have been lost. A loss of 600 jobs in a region like mine is the equivalent of 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 in a larger centre.
It strikes me, therefore, as very important for this to be given a great deal of attention, because of all those direct and indirect jobs. The situation is a difficult one, but the Americans must not complicate it further by not properly understanding the situation and by their decisions, which smack of protectionism as well as a desire, as the giants that they are, to impose their will on everyone.
I feel we must be able to stand up to them. As my colleague from Joliette has said, we must go to the United States and negotiate. We must not negotiate with petty functionaries, but with the top man, the president himself if need be. Our Prime Minister must make this his cause.
Perhaps he is seeking a cause, since I see we are not that busy in parliament. So perhaps the Prime Minister is looking for a cause. Let him set off on his pilgrimage with his pilgrim's staff. This time we will close our eyes to how much he spends on travel. He is the one who must go to the U.S. to settle the softwood lumber situation.