Madam Speaker, first I want to thank the member opposite for his question. He used the pronoun you, so I assume the question was for you. I will answer it anyway, if only to relieve you from this responsibility and to prevent you from having to take a stance, you who play such a neutral role in the debates of this House.
The member opposite mentioned the fact that most woodlots are privately owned in other provinces, whereas Quebec has a different system where 92% of woodlots are publicly owned.
He said Quebec was not “lily white” on this issue. I assume it means beyond reproach. Perhaps we can rely on an organization that is not from Quebec or from Canada to assess the impact of the public ownership of woodlots in Quebec.
In 1992, the U.S. department of commerce concluded that the method used by Quebec to establish stumpage fees on publicly owned woodlots was equivalent to a subsidy rate of 0.1%, not 1% but 0.1%. I remind members that this rate is 100 times lower than the limit above which a countervailing duty must normally be imposed.
Going back to the previous question, why is it that, if the subsidy rate in Quebec was 0.1%, the federal government negotiated an agreement whereby Quebec exporters were subject to a countervailing duty rate of 6.51%? That is the question.