Mr. Speaker, my colleague mentioned that he comes from a large area that has many forest industries, which the Kenora riding had too, but there is not much left thanks to some of the policies of the current government.
The member started off by talking about what the Conservatives have done, but they have done nothing. They have sold out to the softwood lumber deal. Four mills in my riding in northern Ontario have just announced two and a half months of down time because of it.
The member said that the government put an end to expensive litigation. When good friends such as Canada and the United States have disagreements, they have to go to court to solve those disagreements. It was expensive to be there, but we were on the right track. It cost the government a billion dollars to give the softwood lumber industry away. The Conservatives gave it to the people who were fighting us.
With the strong Canadian dollar, what is the government prepared to do today for all the families in northern Ontario, Quebec and everywhere else who no longer have jobs? What is the government prepared to do to make sure that we get those plants up and running? There will have to be new programs because everything the government has done to this point has not worked.