Mr. Speaker, British Columbia's forest firms and workers are victims of the government's failure to negotiate a softwood lumber deal with the United States.
The Liberals had more than five years to secure free trade in softwood lumber with the Americans. They failed to do this work and now our softwood lumber industry and B.C.'s economy is suffering terribly. It has been months and the devastation has wreaked havoc on families and local communities. They need some transitional help to get through a restructuring of this industry.
It was unfair for the natural resources minister to create expectations last May that federal help was only weeks away. These relief measures are still on hold. There was nothing in the Speech from the Throne for the $10 billion softwood lumber industry in crisis. Nothing. The Liberal government has bailed out its favourite industries in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada in the past and even the auto sector during periods of downtime.
Canadians want the federal government to stop ignoring B.C. and give more attention to returning B.C. from its have not province status. This is urgent. There is a 15% unemployment rate that needs to go down now.