Mr. Chair, I was puzzled by the comments of the member for Cumberland—Colchester—Musquodoboit Valley when he talked about the need to have a unified position, when in fact it has been Atlantic Canada that has been one of the dividers of the Canadian position on the basis that because there is more private land in the Maritimes and it has more auctioned timber it is as pure as the driven snow. This has been counterproductive in terms of coming up with a unified Canadian position.
I was disappointed when I read in the paper recently about the position taken by the Maritime Lumber Bureau when again it seems to be trying to split Canada's unity on this issue.
While I take my hat off to what Atlantic Canada is doing, it is strange that to hear some say that because it has more private land and auction that is somehow implicit that there is no subsidy. It sort of presumes that if there is no auction system there is a subsidy. In fact, in 1982 the countervailing duty process concluded that there was no countervailable subsidy. Again in 1992, the Department of Commerce ruled that log export restrictions and stumpage were not countervailable. These were independent panels saying that just because there is no auction system that does not mean there is no subsidy.
I wonder if the member could comment on the divisive positioning sometimes of Atlantic Canada on this issue and the question of export subsidies and auctions.