Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise on the question that I raised in the House some time ago. It turns out that the timing is excellent.
At the time I was asking the government to recognize that the four Atlantic premiers had sent a letter requesting that the maritime accord be renewed. Day after day the parliamentary secretary and the minister would rise in the House and say that nobody wants the agreements renewed.
However I submitted a letter from the four premiers saying that they did want it renewed. On Thursday those four Atlantic premiers signed another letter asking that the maritime accord be renewed.
The softwood lumber issue is a very serious issue for Atlantic Canada. On Thursday the mills in Atlantic Canada received a seven page fax in the middle of the night stating that the rules were all changed, that they were part of a monitoring system for national exports and that they must comply with this system. When the mill owners came to work on Friday morning there was this whole new regime for them. They had to follow all these new rules and they had to start following them on Monday.
In the meantime the mill owners had to make arrangements with brokers and other organizations to make sure their softwood lumber shipments could continue to the U.S. because it blindsided the whole industry in Atlantic Canada. There was no preparation and there was no warning. Even though the government had five years to get ready for the termination of the softwood lumber accord, it left it to the last day to tell the industry that it had to change the way it operated.
It has implemented a monitoring system so that every stick of lumber from Atlantic Canada to the U.S. has to be registered, certified and kept track of. This is an extension of the system that is already in place in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec which now operate under the softwood lumber agreement. Many people believe, including myself, that by extending those regulations an export tax will be established in Canada. We hope this is not the case. The minister says it is not the case, but everything points to an export tax.
When I asked questions about the issue in question period, the minister stood and said that this was done to record the wall of lumber going from Canada to the U.S. upon the expiration of the softwood lumber agreement. That is not a valid argument because Atlantic Canada always had free trade. If there was to be a wall of lumber it would have been last week, last month or last year.
I do not accept his argument or his reasoning for the monitoring system being applied to Atlantic Canada and being extended from the four SLA provinces.
I would like the minister or the parliamentary secretary to rise and confirm that they know that the four Atlantic premiers have sent two signed letters demanding that the accord be renewed. I would like them to acknowledge that and to commit that they will renew the maritime accord as requested by the four premiers.