Mr. Chair, I have a question for the parliamentary secretary about a particular sector of the forest industry. Independent lumber remanufacturers are actually the only part of the sector that is growing in employment these days. They are a non-tenured group of companies. They buy wood on the open market and then add value and likely some sort of profit margin.
They are particularly hard hit in this softwood lumber dispute because they pay duties on the sell price, not on the lumber portion only, so for whatever they do to add value to it and any profit, they get charged the duty on that. They are now hearing that the tenured sector and the government have put together a secret deal that is going to be presented to the Americans, perhaps even as early as this week, without the remanufacturers being consulted. It is a deal that would basically sell them out.
I know the government claims that there are no negotiations, but one of my constituents received a letter from the Minister of International Trade. In it he said that the views and concerns of the Independent Lumber Remanufacturers Association will certainly be taken into account in any negotiations.
That does not give me a lot of confidence that there are no negotiations.
Apparently this deal, from what the remanufacturers have heard, includes having them pay for the maintenance of a system in which they do not participate. They buy lumber on the open market.
I was just wondering if the hon. member knows anything about this. Can he assure us that there is no deal being negotiated? If there is, can he assure us that the independent lumber remanufacturers, this important sector, certainly important in my riding, are being excluded from it, as should be the case?