Mr. Speaker, I am happy to say to the hon. member that I have discussed with the president of the United States the softwood lumber issue every time I have talked with him. I will be there on Thursday to try to finalize as quickly as possible a deal with them.
In theory the best solution is to apply the free trade agreement on all wood products coming from Canada to the United States. We will try to have this deal with the Americans when we will talk with them, but there are some problems in relation to the way some provinces operate their lumber operations that have to be negotiated at the same time. I hope to have good results before the end of the month.