Mr. Speaker, first, I would like to thank the hon. member for Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup—Témiscouata—Les Basques for his comments. I also thank him for taking part in the meetings of the Canadian parliamentary delegation that travelled to New York to present our point of view regarding the softwood lumber issue.
It is true that the Americans have a hard time grasping the concept of public land, of what we call crown land. It is extremely difficult to explain this concept to the Americans. We tried many times. Our Canadian embassy is doing a very good job, and parliamentarians have explained this concept a number of times. We have led very energetic campaigns to that end.
The problem is that as soon as we leave, or maybe three weeks later, it seems as though we have to start all over again. This lack of understanding is essentially based on differing views of what the role of the government should be in the economy. So, we constantly have to redo the work.
I really appreciate the hon. member's view and I thank him for being prepared to contribute to this effort, as have all parliamentarians so far. I can say that no effort will be spared.
As regards help for workers, the Department of Human Resources Development—and I take this opportunity to thank my colleague—has shown great sensitivity when workers across the country were suddenly faced with this situation.
I am very grateful to the employees working in HRDC's offices for having been receptive to the claims of these workers. As a government, we will continue, through our various programs at Human Resources Development Canada and elsewhere, to do our best for our workers.
I sincerely hope that the precarious situation in which our industry, our workers, their families and their communities have been in recent months, because of the punitive—and often overly protectionist—measures demanded by the industry in the U.S., will soon end and that the issue will be settled in the coming days.