Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. It is true the problem in the forestry industry has been with us for some years. It started in May 2002 and lasted through the fall of 2006.
We still remember the softwood lumber crisis. Back then, we were asking the Liberal government for loan guarantees to support our industry. That is when we lost more than 10,000 jobs: between May 2002 and April 2005.
The crisis began then, and has continued ever since. The government in Ottawa, which once had a huge surplus, is now in a crisis itself and is doing nothing to help the forestry industry.