Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to address the motion by my colleague from the Canadian Alliance, the hon. member for Vancouver Island North. I congratulate him on his motion, because it makes a lot of sense.
Today, as the Prime Minister is meeting with President George Bush, we must make it clear to the Prime Minister that all parliamentarians in this House are saying the same thing and share the same view on this issue. We are saying that the softwood lumber issue must be settled.
As the hon. member for Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup—Témiscouata—Les Basques said, parliamentarians must give their unanimous support to this motion. It is important and urgent that members from all parties in the House who will address this motion today stress the importance of settling this issue, for the future of Canada and also the future of our regions.
I am the Bloc Quebecois critic on regional development. I want to tell people from all regions of Quebec who are affected by this situation that the Bloc Quebecois has a very firm position on the softwood lumber issue. We have always been in favour of a complete return to free trade for softwood lumber, as set out in NAFTA.
The Bloc Quebecois feels that the continuing uncertainty regarding the Canadian position in the negotiations is adversely affecting these negotiations. In fact, the Bloc Quebecois is asking the government to go ahead with the support plan announced by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for International Trade.
The Bloc Quebecois is again asking that the employment insurance benefit period be extended by an additional 10 weeks. As we know, most of the workers affected by this issue, whether they work in the bush or in plants, are seasonal workers.
This dispute with the United States has caused huge job losses in Quebec and in all the regions faced with this problem. We are asking for a 10 week extension, so that these workers do not wind up in the gap twice. We are talking about the spring gap. This is the result of the restrictions imposed by the employment insurance reform. Under this reform, the number of weeks that people have to work to qualify for employment insurance has been increased, while the number of weeks during which they can collect benefits has been reduced. It is important that the government put this position on the table.
In Quebec, we have 250 plants creating jobs in this industry. Over 35,000 jobs in plants and in the bush are attributable to softwood lumber; 250 municipalities in Quebec are developing around the wood processing industry. It accounts for 100% of manufacturing jobs in 135 cities and towns. Softwood lumber brings $4 billion to the regional economy. Quebec is the second largest producer of softwood lumber in Canada and is responsible for 25% of Canadian production. Forests cover 446,000 square miles in Quebec. Softwood lumber production in Quebec in 2000 was 17,077,000 board feet.
In Saguenay--Lac-Saint-Jean, where my riding is located, 6,300 jobs have been created in the bush and in plants. The present dispute leaves these 6,300 jobs hanging in the balance. According to the Association des manufacturiers de bois d'oeuvre de sciage du Québec, 6,800 workers have lost their jobs since the dispute first began. There are approximately 40,000 jobs associated with this industry in Quebec.
I think that this opposition day is extremely important. I do not know whether the Prime Minister of Canada will be more convincing in his meeting with the President of the U.S. today because of our arguments. But I have not found him very convincing recently.
I am not questioning the position they took and what they did, but the Americans are going to have to understand that they cannot, after five years have gone by, revisit clauses on which entire sectors of our natural resources depend, which affect our plants and our workers. We cannot allow jobs in this country to be jeopardized.
The U.S. government, the global “elephant”, must understand that it has to come to the table and negotiate a return to free trade. In my opinion, it is imperative that this dispute be resolved.
Early this week, Statistics Canada released figures showing that more and more Canadians are moving to cities. As we can see, all the jobs associated directly or indirectly with plants and sawmills are rural jobs. This is one more argument in favour of keeping these jobs in rural communities, so that these communities can grow and so that we can stop the exodus of young people.
As well the ministers of Industry and International Trade will also have to be concerned—as they said during the last campaign—with the distant parts of Quebec. This is one more argument that could be added to the Prime Minister's tool kit. He needs to tell them that it is important, he needs to stand up and, with conviction, tell the Americans “That is enough. What we have on the table needs to be respected”.
In the past, there have been other verdicts by the WTO supporting Canada's position. Let the Prime Minister base his position on this, then. Let the Americans stop their strong arm tactics all over the place. Let them respect the exchanges we want to have with them, so that in future we can all be on a level playing field and can work together in order to make some progress.
I wish to reiterate my position and that of the Bloc Quebecois, and to call upon all members of this House to vote unanimously in favour of the motion of the member for Vancouver Island North in order to throw some more weight behind the Prime Minister of Canada, so that he can make the U.S. president listen to reason. He must not limit his discussions to golf and sports, but must tell him “I have the unanimous support of the members of the House of Commons, and of all stakeholders, and I want you to understand this”. This is what we want to see happen.
This is the position of the people in the regions, particularly those working in this field, the plant workers, the forest workers. They want to work and they do not want to depend on inconsistent arguments that no longer hold water. This concerns the jobs of people in our area and people in all the provinces of Canada. We want to deal with the Americans and we want to provide them with softwood lumber, but it must be done via an exchange like this. We want to move ahead with firm negotiations that will have long term results.