Mr. Chair, it is very interesting to watch the member for Thunder Bay—Superior North and the member for Kenora—Rainy River freelancing on the issue of EDC loan guarantees or backing of receivables, and some applause from the Minister of Trade for that action. Maybe we can expect some action from the government after three and a half years or so of dithering and bumbling over what to do to support our industry in the face of an onslaught by the U.S. lumber lobby and the U.S. coalition.
I would like to recognize the fact that the member for Kenora—Rainy River did talk about the American consumers, the friends in the U.S. who need to be mobilized on this issue. I will recognize the fact that we have the American Consumers for Affordable Homes. The executive director and others from that organization are in Ottawa as we speak. I know they are taking in this debate tonight, and they are not very far away.
The disappointments of the Conservative Party and of my constituents and many people involved in the forestry industry across the country in the lack of leadership on this most serious trade dispute is profound. Once again, one thing that tonight has proven is that the rhetoric that emanates from the NDP members is not very helpful. Nor is the way they misrepresent for political purposes other people's constructive input.
For example, we have had a pretty clear enunciation of what it means to nominate envoys to carry on communications at the highest levels between the Prime Minister's representative and the President's representative. It is a long way from negotiation, but a very essential step.
NDP members are very much in tune with us from the standpoint that we are both extremely disappointed that it took more than two months after the August 10 extraordinary challenge decision, the final decision at NAFTA, before we had an awakening by the Prime Minister. He finally was willing to talk to the President on this dispute. By that time, much of the advantage of our long, hard fought win, which was several years in the making, culminating on August 10 and predictably in our favour, was lost.
My history on the file goes back quite a long way. I have a fairly strong memory of how the government has failed us. I would like to review that a little just to remind people, because there are some inventive imaginations and shameless storytelling that goes on.
As long ago as January 2000, I met with the Free Trade Lumber Council and the American Consumers for Affordable Homes, both in Canada and in Washington, to prepare my party for the upcoming expiry of the softwood lumber agreement, which was the quota arrangement that ran from 1996 to March 31, 2001. We had a well-enunciated position. I shopped it around for the other parties. Right up until March 31, 2001, we had no idea where the government would take us.
There was a strong suggestion that the government was going to roll over the old agreement. It was quite a victory to find out that the Liberals were not going to take that distorting quota arrangement and just roll it into another agreement.
However, there was no signal on that. As a matter of fact, every signal was that the Liberals were going to take no leadership. Their leadership position was that they were going to take no leadership. It was like the anti-leadership positioning of the Liberal Party of Canada, the Government of Canada. I can talk privately about some conversations as to how that was enunciated, but I would just as soon not embarrass those individuals right now.
After that non-rollover of the agreement, we had free trade until May 2002 when the tariffs were put on. This was very obviously going to be a long and hard fought battle. All of the rules were stacked in favour of the U.S., in some respects because of the Byrd amendment, which redistributes tariff money back to the complainant companies in the U.S. That came into effect in 2000. This was also the first time we had a lumber war under the full provisions of NAFTA.
There was some strong and serious legal thought put to where Canada would be placed over time. It was that thought which led to the 2002 proposal on loan guarantees, backed by EDC. Really what this was is EDC guaranteeing our cash deposits to tariffs as a receivable, so that creditworthy companies can retain their creditworthiness and can continue to use that receivable as an instrument for borrowing power if they should need it.
That was put forward and that is what has never actually gone anywhere with this government. It was rejected by the trade minister of the day. It was resubmitted to the current trade minister in 2004, with the response that there would be no response. It was like the no leadership leadership; there would be no response because NAFTA was still going on. At that time, we knew we were in a waiting game again. Industry knew that.
We now have a circumstance where, on September 14 of this year, after the August 10 NAFTA decision, that proposal was resubmitted to the trade minister. The signs so far are that it will not be acceptable to the government because it might ruffle some U.S. feathers. We have this indeterminate process where the government is basically saying, “We are going to come up with a package. We have no idea what the package is”. The government has had three years. I guess that is not enough time.
Why are they dismissing the EDC proposal? There is no technical reason and the Liberals do it for other sectors. They have certainly done this for Bombardier and others. We are not sure what the impediment is.
In the meantime, they have done some ad-hockery. It is the normal non-leadership leadership of the Liberals coming up with some ad hoc positioning of $50 million for an assistance package for the forest sector in the province of Quebec. Other jurisdictions have yet to see anything.
We have major challenges in the forest sector across the country. This is what people need to understand. In coastal British Columbia where I am from, there is major grief and financial hardship. There are companies that are hanging on by their fingernails.
What is going to happen, unless the government displays leadership, is that there are going to be regions pitted against regions or partial regions pitted against each other. This needs to come to an end. We are not seeing the kind of leadership we need.