Mr. Speaker, this country's softwood lumber industry is in trouble. I know it and everyone in the House knows it.
The blame lies squarely at the feet of the government. It is unbelievable when we recognize the government knew for five years that the softwood lumber agreement would expire. What action did the government take in that five year period to resolve this issue? The government did not do a whole lot because here we are facing crippling duties, tariffs, and the demise of our industry from one end of Canada to the other. There is not a provincial government that would disagree with me.
As an example, British Columbia produces 12 billion feet of lumber a year. In British Columbia alone 35,000 people are employed in that industry. In New Brunswick the industry employs over 4,000 people. There are 64 mills in the small province of New Brunswick. In British Columbia there are 338 mills. Every one of those mills is threatened. Every one of those jobs is threatened.
It is systemic. There are a number of trade issues on the floor of the House that the government has mismanaged and mishandled. The government has paid no attention to the details, hoping it could coast along and things would get done and things would work out. This is an example of where that laissez-faire management style just does not work. It has not worked in agriculture and it has not worked in steel. It certainly is not working in the softwood lumber dispute.
This is another example of the deteriorating relationship between Canada and the United States. Sometimes personal intervention can make a difference. It is acknowledged that the Prime Minister of Canada has no relationship with the President of the United States because that would run against everything the Prime Minister ever spoke of and believed in. That thread of anti-Americanism that runs in the veins of the Prime Minister has not helped us in this case. He cannot get on the telephone to the President of the United States and talk this thing over and have it resolved.
Even a former minister who now represents us in Geneva, Sergio Marchi, said the same thing. This is a case where Ottawa and Washington have to get together at the highest levels to solve the problem.
Maybe it has to do with that historic relationship years ago when the present Prime Minister accused a former prime minister of going fishing with a former U.S. president, calling him his fishing buddy. The present Prime Minister referred to the former prime minister as being the fish on the hook of the former U.S. president, but it was found that the present Prime Minister was nothing more than a caddy for President Clinton.
The softwood lumber issue is serious and the government has no resolution in sight. Thousands of jobs in Canada are at risk. How in the short term will the government resolve it? What plan does the government have to give us some confidence that it will resolve this issue?