Mr. Speaker, I would just like to make one clarification. The member for Ahuntsic referred earlier to the federal program to deal with the softwood lumber crisis.
She neglected to say, however, that there was no new money for economic diversification in the regions affected by the softwood lumber crisis. For 2004-05, there is merely a transfer of money provided last year when they thought the crisis would be over by now.
The federal government needs to do more, particularly since there is no specific assistance for affected companies or workers. It is as if they had been sent out to the front lines and then abandoned.
I understand that the member for Etobicoke North wants to see a solution found to this crisis. So do we all, because people in our areas are going through really hard times.
Unfortunately, the proposal before us does not strike me as the most appropriate. I hope that the federal government will come back as soon as possible with a real aid package, with phase two, to ensure that our companies will still be around when we have won all the necessary legal battles back and have restored true free trade for softwood lumber.