Mr. Speaker, I thank members opposite for their comments on the issue, in particular the comments made by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for International Trade.
These comments drive home clearly that the softwood lumber problem is not a problem between east and west and the provinces of Canada. This is plain and simple a north-south problem involving the United States and $10 billion of annual trade in that commodity. I thank the parliamentary secretary because it is important to our area that the stated goal is free trade in this commodity.