Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the concern raised by the member opposite. It is an important issue. In my role and capacity as international trade critic, I have had the opportunity to meet with many people in the industry and to listen firsthand to the crisis that is currently looming with the job losses and the tremendous pressures they are facing just trying to maintain their operations.
When we were in government, we put forth a very comprehensive $1.5 billion forestry industry competitive plan that was announced in November 2005. This plan included funding and support for our transformative technologies, incentives for bioenergy expansion, assistance to respond to innovation opportunities, support for market expansion and a national forest community adjustment fund.
Those initiatives were all part of that $1.5 billion package to create a partnership with our industry in recognition of the fact that jobs and communities were important and that Canadian families needed the federal government to play a substantive role.
Instead, unfortunately, the Conservative government came into power and not only did it not follow through with this $1.5 billion commitment, but it signed a flawed softwood lumber agreement that effectively placed quotas in the system, that effectively raised tariffs and that effectively prevented the government from providing any type of incentive or initiative or any type of ability to work with the forestry sector.
What we see today is an absence of federal leadership on that front. The provincial governments are now forced to play a role and, unfortunately, any time they take any action they will be sued by the United States because of this flawed softwood lumber agreement.
We understand the concern and we were the ones who put forth a $1.5 billion initiative in November 2005.