Mr. Speaker, once again this government has sold Atlantic Canada down the river.
For over a year the Minister for International Trade promised to find a made in Canada solution, a long term solution, to the softwood lumber deal, but now the minister has put on the table a proposed two year solution in which Atlantic Canada loses its exemption from export taxes.
Just last February the Minister for International Trade stood in the House and said, “...let us be very clear. We are not going to renegotiate the situation of Atlantic Canada that has been exempted”.
We are now learning that on Friday they made a proposal which gives that exemption away.
For years the Maritime Lumber Bureau in Atlantic Canada negotiated the softwood lumber exemption, and incredibly, the Department of International Trade has now offered to give it away. This sets a dangerous precedent and I ask the minister to move quickly to withdraw the proposal that gives up the Atlantic Canada exemption on softwood lumber.