Mr. Speaker, the province of British Columbia continues to pay a hefty price for not having an influential cabinet minister.
Just as it has done with the softwood lumber dispute, the government has failed to step in and offer to help the province in our fight against the mountain pine beetle. The Minister of Natural Resources now seems to believe his government has done its part, as it pointed out to the province that it had this problem in 1995 with the timely advice “You might want to fix it”.
As with health care and highways, the government has abandoned my province to find the money and resources to combat a crisis. This is a complete reversal of the minister's position in May when his response to my question was that the government would pursue every reasonable means to help our forest sector find a solution.
A war against the beetle costs money. On November 6, I wrote to the Minister of Finance to ask that he allocate $50 million annually to fight the mountain pine beetle.
If the government takes the issue seriously, the necessary funds will be targeted in Monday's budget.