Madam Speaker, I listened carefully to my friend. He raised four strategies he would like our government to adopt to improve the situation in the forestry industry. I will certainly take those stategies under advisement. I appreciate his coming forward with some suggestions that we as a government can look at and process to see if they have the impact of improving our forestry sector.
However, he made one statement that was somewhat disingenuous. I do appreciate honesty in the House. He made the statement that the Conservative government, of which I am a member, had done absolutely nothing to address the forestry challenges we have in Canada. He knows that is not true.
I want to remind the hon. member that we have a $1 billion community development trust, which goes a long way toward addressing the concerns of challenged communities. The accelerated capital cost allowance program was implemented under our government. We have returned $4 billion to the forestry sector under the softwood lumber agreement. We have also introduced $1 billion of support for western Canada for the pine beetle-ravaged forests and communities that rely upon the pine and lumber industry in British Columbia.
Does the member accept the fact that we have done much to address the forestry challenges facing Canada?