Mr. Chair, the speaking slots are somewhat limited tonight and I think I speak for members of all four parties when I say that many MPs would like to have had a chance to speak to this important issue. They obviously will not get that chance other than in questions and comments.
I want to take a moment to pay tribute to the working men and women and the families who are affected by this not only in my riding of Prince George--Peace River, but the thousands of families who have seen some really tough times and continue to see tough times all across the country. These families are suffering. By and large they have seen an immense amount of inaction on the part of the government.
I do not want to be overly partisan or critical tonight. The Minister of International Trade is sitting here tonight and I commend him for staying through the debate and listening to the points of view. He knows how these families are suffering because I am sure they have communicated with him and that he has listened.
I also want to pay tribute to the industry which has brought down the unit cost. As the leader of the official opposition stated in his remarks, the unknown thing that transpired through these countervail duties is it actually forced our industry to become even more efficient. We were already efficient in our production of wood products, but the industry has become even more efficient. The unknown consequences for the Americans is that our wood products are flooding into the United States. As my leader said, this should prove to the Americans that this is a failed policy and that it is not working. It is not having the desired effect of protecting the American industry from a highly competitive, efficient, effective Canadian industry, and good on the men and women in the companies in Canada who have been able to do that under such adverse conditions.
The Conservative Party recognizes that we cannot communicate as often as we need to head of state to head of state. Obviously that would be the ideal. That is why we were urging the Prime Minister for quite some time to communicate directly with the President of the United States when it became clear that the Americans were going to ignore the latest ruling.
We have advocated that special envoys be appointed on both sides. These envoys would not negotiate because we have already won. We are all in agreement on that. We want these envoys to communicate to the Americans at the highest level possible that severe ramifications are at stake here, not just for the 3% of NAFTA that is softwood lumber, but for the other 97% that affects the economies of both countries.
Why will the government not at least look at appointing special envoys, not to negotiate, but to raise the level of debate and awareness?