Madam Speaker, I will try not to get carried away during this debate, because I know our interpreters sometimes have a hard time translating what I say when I get carried away. I will try to stay calm, but this is a debate that quickly becomes emotional for me, because the Abitibi—Témiscamingue region has been hard hit by the softwood lumber crisis.
But first, Madam Speaker, I would like to congratulate you. I have not had the chance to speak in the House since you were appointed as deputy chair of committees of the whole, and for the time being, you are presiding over the work of the House. Congratulations.
That being said, I am extremely concerned about the softwood lumber situation. I will give some examples. I have a specific example of what is happening in our area. In 2006, we approached the Conservative government that had been elected. We will all recall that there was a softwood lumber crisis. At the time, when the softwood lumber agreement was signed, the NDP and the Liberals voted against it and we voted with the Conservatives to support the agreement. We supported the agreement for several reasons. First, because the workers, the employers and the municipalities asked us to, because otherwise they were all going to shut down. That is the nub of the problem. I may have the Minister’s answer, since he does not want to give an answer regarding the section that deals with the softwood lumber crisis and the reason why he does not want to give loan guarantees. We asked the government then and we are asking it again—we asked the Speaker and the Minister—to clarify the so-called anti-circumvention clause. I am going to speak a little on that subject.
I know I have only 10 minutes, but this is an extremely important clause and it was so vague. We told the government: “Be careful, this absolutely has to be clarified with officials at Canada Economic Development and the Department of International Trade,” because they are going to come back to us and say: “The assistance works like this, it does not work like that, and you cannot do that.” Here is an example. In Barraute, in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, there is a company that manufactures wood box springs for beds. That company asked for assistance from the federal government and CED said: “Listen, it is not clear. We do not know whether you are going to be able to ship that to the American market. If you ship that to the American market, it comes under the anti-circumvention clause and it might violate the agreement.”
That is the issue. The government absolutely has to help companies get through the crisis, and there are not a lot of ways of doing that, there is only one. These companies have to be given loan guarantees.
In my riding, there are Tembec, Abitibi Bowater, Kruger, Domtar and four independent companies. The first four I just named—I will repeat them: Domtar, Kruger, Abitibi Bowater and Tembec—are not doing well. They are actually on life support. We were expecting Abitibi Bowater to declare bankruptcy yesterday or today. That has not happened, luckily for us. But for us in Abitibi—Témiscamingue, this means more than 2,000 direct jobs. For a region with a population of 130,000, if we lose 2,000 direct jobs, plus another 4,000 indirect jobs, we have just shut down several villages. As it stands, Launay has shut down, Béarn has shut down.
My colleague from Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou will be talking about Lebel-sur-Quévillon again. But in my riding, I have to say that Tembec is not doing well. They have asked the federal government for assistance.
If the ministers on the other side could listen to me for 30 seconds—I am thinking about the Minister of Natural Resources, the Minister of State for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec and especially theMinister of International Trade—if they could get together and understand that a situation like that is dangerous for our regions, then we would have made some progress. We might think they do not talk to one another. We might think that the ministers and departments find it very difficult to talk to one another.
I know this because we have worked with Tembec on applications to Canada Economic Development. CED told us it would help us, but Export Development Canada thinks that this would violate the softwood lumber agreement. That agreement has really hurt us. It was a negotiated agreement, but to use an expression from legal jargon, it was “with a gun to our head”. Sign it or you die. That is exactly what is happening now. We have proposed 15 measures that could be useful, and I am going to review a few of them for the benefit of my colleagues opposite.
The forestry resource could generate more jobs. Recovery is an option. Some companies, such as Cyclofor, in my riding, need help. When Cyclofor goes to cut blocks, it recovers everything left in the cutting area to the level of about three 3 centimetres of sediment and chips the residue. What does it do with the chips? They are not selling anymore. It has to transform them into something else. It needs help with research and development to come up with new products and find new uses.
I will not talk about stimulating the creation and development of new processing industries. This crisis may give some regions an opportunity to reassess and to change their tack. The forest is like a ship, and needs to change tack significantly in order to change the focus of its production. We must stop exporting 2x4s. This expression is understood in the forestry industry. At the moment, 2x4s are shipped out. Houses built there are transformed, and often the 2x4s leave Abitibi-Témiscamingue, head off to Toronto, cross over at Detroit and come back to be sold to us. This is unacceptable.
Our motion today encourages the government to do its homework. New product research and development must be stimulated. How? Personally, I sent three proposals to Canada Economic Development, for example. One department is not doing its job, and it is the Department of the Environment. That department could help the forestry industry hugely by assisting research on producing ethanol from forestry residues. Instead of making ethanol from corn, it could be made from forestry residue. The mills are there. The people are there who can work their way out of this.
I have another example. There is talk of establishing pellet mills, processing tiny bits of wood into the fuel used in slow-burning wood stoves. Pellets can be used in place of wood. One example is Écoflamme in Témiscamingue. Tembec has its head office there. If it fails, some 500 jobs will be lost and everything around it will close.
We are in a crisis. I will close by asking the government to be sensitive and concerned about the affected regions and to think about helping them.
The measures we have taken are vital. The government could hep us if it wanted to.