Mr. Chair, what a silly comment from a member who should know better.
We are calling for an export levy on energy exports. Energy has been tied in with dispute settlement since the very beginning of negotiations on NAFTA and the free trade agreement. What we are calling for is that linkage with dispute settlement.
As the member knows, because the papers have been clear on that in the last few days, 80% of Canadians agree with us. Eighty per cent of Canadians believe that because energy supplies and dispute settlement were closely linked from the very beginning of negotiations on the free trade agreement and NAFTA, our government and this Parliament should be standing up for Canadian rights and Canadians jobs and should be looking very closely at that option.
I should mention, while I have a moment, that just because there were references from the trade minister about some of the avenues that they are looking at, such as advocacy and litigation, a negotiation would be the worst possible thing that we could do and litigation would be the second worse. What it does is it puts us right back to where we were before we signed the FTA and NAFTA. We are going to American courts, spending Canadian money for American lawyers, on an American playing field, to have an American decision. Litigation is not an intelligent route to take, but, unfortunately, because of the lack of action by the government, we have no choice but to support the industry in continuing along those lines.
To get back to this point of advocacy, I was part of a softwood delegation that went down to Washington last spring. The NDP was the only party that sent a full delegation. When we got off the plane we were given a t-shirt that was made in Mexico and a Canadian flag pin that was made in the People's Republic of China and we were told to go out and advocate on behalf of Canadian industry. This was a perfect illustration of why the advocacy efforts of the government have not worked. They have not been credible.