I never called the member a liar, Mr. Speaker. I believe you can attest to that. I said I did not understand why we did not hear the member for Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik and the member for Témiscamingue publicly demand, as I am doing, a simple amendment to Bill C-48 to increase the pre-production mining expenditure tax credit from 10% to 20%.
On October 1, 2003, the Mining Association of Canada presented a brief to the Standing Committee on Finance. It was not six months ago or six years ago. It was last Wednesday. The president of the association, Mr. Peeling, came to implore us to make this change; it does not eliminate all the unfairness, but it is the compromise the Mining Association put forward. The only ones who supported the amendment were the Bloc Quebecois members. In the end we got the support of the Canadian Alliance members when they understood what was at stake.
On the Liberal side, one member supported us and another one said—and I can understand him to a point—that he agreed in principle with the amendment, but that he was concerned we might lose the bill. I cannot see how we could lose a bill at this stage, if everybody agreed on a very simple amendment to Bill C-48 and if we had the support of the Liberal majority.
For our part, we work for our people in the regions. I never said the member was a liar. I would have liked him to publicly state his position on Bill C-48. He might do it in the next few minutes. He may have looked at the changes requested by the Mining Association of Canada and the Quebec Mining Association.
People at Cambior approached us. I was secretary general at the CSN and I toured mines in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region and across Quebec. I know this situation well. It does not prevent me from still standing up for our regions and our mining sector.