Mr. Speaker, what exactly is the international trade minister celebrating today in Washington? The government's incompetence with the softwood lumber file? The unemployment of 4,000 B.C. forestry workers? The bankruptcy of Doman Industries and others? Or maybe it is because the industry representatives from Canada and the U.S. have advanced softwood lumber talks further in five days than the Liberals have in the last three years.
The U.S. is threatening to double the current 27% duty on Canadian softwood lumber. Today our government responds by offering Americans Timbits, caribou meat and beer. This comes on the heels of the government's $17 million ad campaign that relied upon Leave it to Beaver nostalgia with slogans like “We grew up together” and “Let's keep a good thing growing”.
Is this the best the Liberals can do for our forest industry? When will this spineless, out of touch government shed its feel good tactics and give our lumber industry free access to U.S. markets?