Mr. Speaker, my hon. colleague asked an interesting question about the maritime accord and where the name came from.
The name came from the United States. The United States considers anything east of Quebec in Canada to be the maritimes. However the maritimes consists only of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and P.E.I. The Atlantic provinces include Newfoundland. In this case there is an aberration where the maritime accord refers to all four Atlantic provinces.
The maritime accord provides the maritimes, the four Atlantic provinces, with total free trade and access to the U.S. There are no quotas, no tariffs and no limit. Not only that, it provides protection against litigation for anti-dumping and countervail charges which could be brought by the American industry.
It is an excellent agreement. It provides access to the American market for Atlantic Canada. It provides thousands of jobs in Atlantic Canada. It has allowed for a vibrant, strong industry that can compete next to American lumber producers head to head under the same circumstances. As I said earlier, 74.5% of our softwood lumber exports come from private woodlots, quite similar to the experience in the United States.