Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to join in the debate today. I will be splitting my time with the member for Lethbridge.
The forestry industry is very important in Canada. Last year we exported about $10 billion of lumber to the United States. It creates thousands of jobs. This makes it critically important that the government pursue the issue with vigour and that it push the Americans as hard as it can to ensure that we have a free trade deal.
Unfortunately, however, I agree with my colleague from Calgary Southwest, sometimes the government sends the completely wrong message when it comes to the issue of free trade. Canada does not always practise what it preaches. There are a number of sectors where we do not have free trade, precisely because the government has decided that it wants to protect certain industries for political reasons. That is regrettable, because in the end it undermines our case for free trade. Frankly it leaves Canada less well off.
I make the argument that Canada needs to practise what it preaches. Before I do that, I should like to talk for a moment about why free trade in general is a good idea. Canada is an exporting nation. We rely on exports for much of our prosperity. About 43% of Canada's total prosperity comes from trade. This is critical to us and we have to continue to push for the idea of rules based trade.
I am saddened and it concerns me every time I see a country that says on the one hand that it is committed to free trade but on the other hand finds ways to circumvent it every time it perceives its interests being threatened. I think the Americans are guilty of that in this case.
As has been mentioned, there have been three previous investigations into the lumber issue. Canada has won each and every one of them. Yet the Americans insist on pushing it. Canada has not helped itself either. I argue that the government has not always done a very good job of pursuing our interests when it comes to free trade and the softwood lumber dispute.
I point to the remarks of the industry minister who said not very long ago that he thought some kind of quota system, some kind of mixture of the softwood lumber agreement and free trade, would be the final result of a negotiation after the current SLA comes up for renewal at the end of March. That is regrettable, because we also have the trade minister arguing that we should have free trade in lumber, which is certainly the position of the Canadian Alliance.
Meanwhile, we have the Prime Minister saying, I think it was just yesterday, that there should be linkages between lumber and other industries when it comes to free trade, which is contrary to the position the trade minister has taken. I happen to think that the Prime Minister might be a little more correct on this than the trade minister. Nevertheless, people are confused when the government is saying different things on this issue and it does not help our case at all.
How do we make the best possible case that we can to have free trade in the softwood lumber industry between Canada and the United States? First, we need to speak with one voice. I have just made the case that government is saying different things on this.
Second, sometimes we have to examine the words of the Americans themselves and throw them back at them. When President Bush was campaigning for the presidency and since he has become president he has said at various times that free trade was a priority for him. Later in April, President Bush and other leaders from the Americas will be in Quebec City at the summit of the Americas.
One item on the agenda will be a free trade agreement of the Americas. President Bush has made it very clear that he wants to pursue free trade in the Americas, and I think Canada does as well. Trade is good for Canada. There is a powerful case to be made for free trade.
I do not think President Bush will have the credibility that he would like to have if on the one hand he is pushing for a free trade agreement of the Americas and on the other hand he is not standing up to his own senators who are pushing for a continuation of the softwood lumber agreement. In other words, they are pushing for more barriers to trade, and that is completely inconsistent with what President Bush has stated.
Not very long ago I was in Washington and had a chance to sit down with Vice-President Cheney. Vice-President Cheney made it very clear that he believed in free trade when it came to energy. President Bush has spoken of the North American energy policy. Free trade would be great, and we agree. We think that is a great idea.
Why would people in the energy industry go to great expense to build extra generating capacity to send energy to the United States, knowing that the Americans could at any point put in place barriers and tariffs the moment their own industries were being threatened because Canadian producers are so efficient?
The Americans have to ask themselves why they would have any credibility at all on pushing a free trade agreement of the Americas or a North American energy grid when they are being protectionist on softwood lumber. They simply will not have credibility and our own people will not invest billions of dollars in extra generating capacity when they know there is a possibility that these barriers could be thrown up.
Canada has to do a much better job of selling the benefits of free trade in the United States. My colleague from across the way just pointed out that the coalition for affordable housing in the United States has made the case that the current softwood lumber deal actually adds about $1,000 U.S. to the price of every home in the United States.
That is an important fact that Canada really needs to push. I do not think we have done a very good job of promoting in the United States the fact that the softwood lumber agreement is actually an extra tax on consumers in the United States.
President Bush on one hand is pushing his $1.6 trillion tax cut, a fine idea for the United States. We should have tax relief in Canada as well. On the other hand the U.S. is effectively raising taxes through the softwood lumber agreement, $1,000 U.S. on every new home, because of that agreement. We need to forcefully make that case to the American public.
My friend has also pointed out that there have been a couple of resolutions passed in the U.S. congress calling on congress and the senate to repeal the softwood deal because of its impact on homes. We should remind senators and congressmen that not everybody feels the same.
We met with Senator Craig from Idaho, the chair of the forestry subcommittee in the U.S. senate. He comes from a state where they produce softwood lumber. He made the point that there were other voices speaking on the issue and that not everyone agreed with the softwood lumber agreement.
We need to make the case that U.S. Senator Craig is making, that congressmen are making and that home builders in the U.S. are making, that this is a cost to American consumers. It actually costs jobs as well for people engaged in the home building industry in the United States.
We have not done a good job of that. We need to do a far better job of making the case so that the public starts to put pressure on the senators to urge them to back away from another softwood lumber agreement and instead embrace the idea of free trade in the lumber industry.
We need to make the case to the public in the United States, I have touched on this already, that the U.S. government's protectionism on the issue will ultimately hurt jobs there because it undermines its credibility when it pursues other free trade agreements which ultimately lead to prosperity. We urge the government to do a better job of making that case.
I will simply conclude by saying that Canada has to do a better job of vigorously attacking positions which oppose free trade. We put tremendous effort into all kinds of other things when it comes to our foreign affairs policy. The previous foreign affairs minister spent a lot of time globe trotting, pursuing noble sounding causes, but he simply did not get down to business.
We have a new foreign affairs minister now. We urge him to put extra effort into reinvigorating our relationship with the United States and reinvigorating the case for free trade, something that has not happened at this point. Because of that it is costing Canadians jobs and prosperity. We simply urge members across the way to put their resources and their time into reinvigorating the whole discussion over free trade that will ultimately benefit Canada.