Mr. Speaker, we do need a comprehensive package. As the trade minister said yesterday, the federal government will be there for communities and employees and packages are being put together. We have until May 23. We are not abandoning negotiations but we will not negotiate a bad deal.
We do have supports for employees through employment insurance programs. We have Community Futures Development Corporations that allow for and support diversification and value added industries in our rural communities. We have a program that was immensely effective for coastal communities where, through western diversification, $25 million was tripled at the local level to help in those value added and diversification initiatives. Those are the type of programs we are looking at.
For goodness' sake, let us not suggest that nothing has been done. There has been more aggressive action on this file by the international trade minister than on any other issue over the last year. The Prime Minister has had engagements with the president on this perhaps more than any issue, including security, over the last year.
We are standing firm with the provinces, with industry and, we hope, with members opposite to make sure we have a unified position in favour of free trade. The problem is not in Canada, it is in the U.S. because of protectionism. The consequences are being visited on us and that is why we all have to pull together to deal with them.