Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have this opportunity to speak to the motion introduced by the Bloc Quebecois, concerning the matter of an assistance plan for Canadian lumber industry workers.
We are all aware now of the outcome of the negotiations between the Liberal government and the United States. Basically the Liberal government was unable to defend the interests of Canadians. So here we are this morning forced to debate a motion that is totally justified by the U.S. decision to impose a 27.2% tax on lumber sales to our friends whom we have supported and helped out during difficult times.
On May 2, the NDP leader called upon the government to do something for the forest industry workers whose jobs were threatened. Moreover, all opposition parties had called upon the government to provide emergency financial support, but it preferred to turn a deaf ear and leave them and their families to their own devices.
It is obvious that the 27.2% tax is going to result in enormous job losses. According to a quick evaluation, just in order to sell their Canadian lumber on the U.S. market, forest companies will have to pay out $2.2 billion annually. This is a lot of money.
The NDP leader asked the minister a question in the House, which I would like to quote:
Mr. Speaker, we do not want the government to stand by. We want the government to stand up and do something.
Forestry workers and their families are becoming more and more desperate by the hour. If the government refuses to help with loans, will it at least crank up a national housing program, long overdue?
This was for the purpose of trying to generate employment in the regions.
This would provide relief to the troubled softwood industry and it would also generate desperately needed housing.
With an investment equivalent to a single month's surplus, the government could create 36,000 housing units and at the same time create 46,000 desperately needed jobs. Will the government do that?
The leader also asked one other question:
Mr. Speaker, let us call with one voice for the return of that money, but how many more forestry workers must lose their jobs before the government finally takes steps to protect their families, their communities and their industry? People want to work.
The fear of generating more complaints about subsidies is the government's lame excuse for inaction, but we know that the government has an American study that debunks that myth.
Will the trade minister move on that study's conclusion and make available to threatened companies loans at commercial rates?
Here is the minister's reply:
Mr. Speaker, let me be very clear. I have always been clear on this very subject.
This is the minister's answer. If he was so clear, I wonder why we are debating this motion in the House of Commons today.
I think it is important that we stand by our workers and the government intends to stand by the workers. We will stand by the communities, we will stand by our industry, and the Americans need to know that.
This is a nice speech in the House of Commons. The minister goes on to say:
I have always said that loan guarantees or any other means of action were on the table, that there were a number of options that were on the table. We are consulting with the industry because the industry itself is giving us advice at this very moment about what would be the most helpful tool to help them.
We will stand with them and of course whatever we would do we would design in a way that would not be countervailable.
The minister made this statement in the House of Commons on May 2 of this year. Today, May 7, the following comments made by the Tembec company can be found on CBC's Newsworld:
Tembec will use the North American Free Trade Agreement to file a $200 million damage claim against the United States over that government's plans to impose duties against Canadian softwood lumber producers. The company's president and CEO, Frank Dottori, said he was disappointed in the United States' decision to go ahead with the duties.
Where was the government on May 2? Where is the government today that said on May 2 that it would consult the industry? Where was the government when our colleague across the floor a few minutes ago said it was on the file from the beginning and the opposition was not there? Where was the government when the opposition brought this to the House of Commons many times?
Where was the government? How can the government say today in the House that it is defending Canadian workers? What is the government doing? What is wrong with it for it to drop an industry where thousands and thousands of good jobs will be lost because the Americans are telling us how to run our own country? Where was the government when the minister himself said that he would not abandon Canadians, since Quebec has already lost 1,800 jobs and more than 10,000 more jobs will be lost across Canada?
But the government is sitting, and we know on what. Today, it is sad to see what free trade has brought us, that is one way free trade. How many times have the Americans felt the need to impose countervailing duties to Canada? They did it on numerous occasions. How many times have Canadians been forced to impose such duties to the Americans? Never, because they consider that the United States is an untouchable power. We are caught under the American umbrella.
In the meantime, we are losing jobs here in Canada. The current government is not the only one to in this situation. We can go back to the previous government, which promoted free trade. Instead of free trade, we should have had a faire trade accord, where Canadians would have taken their rightful place.
If we look at softwood lumber and agriculture, we see that Canadians are losing everywhere. In the case of big primary industries, the Americans take over our companies and then decide what they will do with them. A company like Tembec has been forced to go to court to defend itself against the Americans because of free trade. Why is it not the Canadian government that is defending Canadians, as the minister said on May 2 in the House of Commons?
It is sad to see this and to see people who have worked in the softwood lumber industry across the country being affected by this situation. In the Atlantic region, we were not supposed to be affected by this problem. However, even we, the Atlantic people, have been affected by the rate of countervailing duties, as are all other Canadians.
We thought that free trade was supposed to apply to everything, without countervailing duties imposed by the Americans. The federal Liberal government was not even able to negotiate having these duties stopped so that we would not have to pay this money. Now, some companies have been forced to go before the courts to defend themselves, while it should be the government itself and our leaders who should be doing so to defend our people.
How can the federal government boast that it stood up for Canadian workers when they now have an employment insurance scheme that is no longer adequate, and an insurance fund from which the Liberal government has taken $8 billion this year alone? The benefits for workers who lost their jobs only amounted to $7.2 billion. It is shameful that the federal government should get more out the employment insurance program than the industry and workers do.
It is shameful that this government dares to boast in the House of Commons and to Canadians. It should assume its responsibilities instead.
When Canadians voted for the Liberals in the last election, it is certainly because most of them, myself excluded, agreed with them.
Let me remind the House that, during the last campaign, the Liberals were saying throughout the country, “Keep us in power, and we will protect you and create jobs. We will stand behind you. We are the only government in Canada that can look after you”.
It is disappointing to realize today that on a issue like softwood lumber, the federal government is not assuming its responsibilities and is content with spewing empty rhetoric in the House. This government is sitting on its hands. We have a minister who travelled to Vancouver to tell workers they did not lose their jobs because of the U.S. tax on softwood lumber.
It was because of modernization that all these jobs were lost. If that is so, we have a problem, because things will never go back to what they were. This means that the government has lost confidence. The government has lost the power to protect Canadian workers. The only defence the minister can think of is to say that our troubles are due to modernization.
It is true that modernization has hurt us, but not to the point of eliminating tens of thousands of jobs. It is not modernization that did that. We must now admit that free trade has hurt Canadians. Every time we turn around, the Americans are there with their rules. This is the source of the problem.
The federal Liberal government should assume its responsibilities. I cannot say often enough that it should be able to come up with assistance for these workers. It should be able to say to the Americans, “We will defend our free trade”.
It should not be up to Tembec to take the U.S. government to court. The government should assume its responsibilities. It was the government which signed the free trade agreement; it is for the government to assume this responsibility.
Be it softwood lumber or farming, we have problems with our primary industries. People have worked in these industries all their life. It was supposed to be heaven on earth when we signed the free trade agreement. The other countries were supposed to have better working conditions. In Mexico today, there are still people working for $2 or $4 an hour, and in the United States, working conditions have taken a step backwards.
Even here in Canada, working conditions have gotten worse instead of better, despite the new technologies and job modernization. It is worse than ever. People are forced to work an unacceptable number of hours, to work on weekends, up to 70 hours a week.
We saw this in Ontario. The Ontario government changed the law to say that overtime would now be paid after 50 hours. In 2002, we are moving backwards; this is not good for workers, not at all. Whether governments are Liberal or Progressive Conservative, things are not looking good in the provinces.
I am not trying to say that the softwood lumber dispute is the cause of all of Canada's problems, but I can tell you that we have had problems since the free trade agreement was signed.
Let us take, for instance, the privatization of our health care system. Some day, the Americans will get their hands on our health care system and we will no longer have a say in the matter. Beware of what the future holds for us. Canada is losing its sovereignty and the Liberals on the other side are to blame, because they are not doing their job.
This is why the New Democratic Party supports the motion brought forward by the Bloc Quebecois. We do not have any other choice. The opposition blames the government for not having taken its responsibilities and for not having been tough enough during the softwood lumber negotiations with the U.S. We cannot simply say, “You are the parents, we are the children and we will listen to you”. But that is what is happening.
We are going through the same thing in Afghanistan. We always have to listen to the Americans and do what they tell us to do. We are down on our knees before them. It is time to stand up, to speak for ourselves and to act like a country, as we did in the past.
I urge the government members to consider the motion and not to rise, one at a time, to defend the minister. Let them speak the truth, let them say that they disagree with the way the softwood lumber issues are dealt with and that the government will assume its responsibilities and help Canadians in two ways, first, by negotiating with the U.S. and, second, by helping out our workers and businesses who are hurting and who stand to lose millions and millions of dollars.