Madam Speaker, I will share my time with the member for Trois-Rivières, who does some excellent work.
As a member of the Bloc Québécois, I have the pleasure to speak to the motion put forward by our party.
Let us take the time to read together the motion put forward by the Bloc Québécois.
That, in the opinion of the House, by providing only $170 million in funding over two years in the latest budget to assist the forestry industry, the government is showing once again its lack of concern for the Quebec economy, which has been hard hit by the forestry crisis, since this amount falls well short of what this industry needs to see it through the current crisis, especially since this funding will serve to extend programs that are ill-suited to the needs of the industry in crisis; the government should therefore establish a real plan as soon as possible to help the forestry industry, a plan including a series of specific, sustainable development measures, including loans and loan guarantees, refundable tax credits for research and development, a policy to encourage the use of lumber in the construction and renovation of federal public buildings and measures to support energy and ethanol production from forestry waste.
The Bloc Québécois motion is intended to be complete in itself. Our colleagues in the other parties should follow the Bloc's example. Quebec is a diversified society in a number of the sectors of its economy. One of the major sectors is the forestry industry. My riding of Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel has one of the highest concentrations of hardwood forests in North America. We need to keep abreast of developments in the hardwood forestry industry. In times of economic crisis, that industry faces a rather difficult situation. According to this morning's, Le Droit, one of our companies has just had to apply for protection under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act because of the weakness of the market. The newspaper was referring to a hardwood floor company in difficulty that has a number of employees. In the Papineau sector of my riding of Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, 45% of jobs are connected to the forestry sector.
If I chose any other riding in the regions of Quebec, the figures would be more or less the same, that is somewhere between 25% and 55% of the labour force is connected to the forestry sector. The same goes for other provinces in Canada. Every day, the Bloc rises in this House to defend the interests of Quebeckers, but we are glad when it also helps other regions of Canada.
One cannot remain unmoved by this crisis, which started long before the financial crisis announced in 2008. It is more than five years since the forestry industry started to ring the alarm bells and to warn the government. We had the softwood lumber crisis and the agreement with the US, which the Bloc Québécois supported precisely because the Quebec forestry industry asked it to. The industrial sector was unanimous on this. The NDP often accuses us of all manner of things in this area, but the Bloc Québécois has always been in symbiosis with those industries. It is all very well to live in a dream world, like the NDP, but there is a hard reality: people are losing their jobs. Business owners are saying they would rather lose a billion dollars than to risk losing it all. That is the choice business made at the time, and we endorsed that choice. That is what it means to be a political party that listens to business and its needs.
This is why we are proposing this motion today. We are still listening to business. The industry has been asking for loans and loan guarantees for several years, not several months. It has been done for the auto industry, but this government is refusing to do it for the forest and manufacturing sectors although it is allowed by international law. This is the reality. Why? Because in a time of crisis, it is rather difficult to obtain financing from the banks. This is the reality. Forestry companies have been in a crisis situation for many years. Even in budget 2008, the Minister of Finance had identified the forestry and manufacturing sectors as simply being in recession. They were already in recession then. Signs were present well before the financial crisis became evident in 2008.
Obviously, when a whole segment of the economy is suffering both in Québec and in other Canadian provinces, it is impossible for us not to be on the lookout and not to try to listen. The Conservatives have proposed a stimulus package with only $170 million for this sector. This is just peanuts. Excuse me for saying this, but compared to companies' needs, this is close to nothing. This is why we are today asking the government to open their eyes. We need a true plan to help the forestry industry. There is a package for the auto industry. We are not criticizing this plan, quite the opposite. What we wanted in the stimulus package for the auto industry was protection for subcontractors because many of them are in Québec as well as other parts of Canada. We were hoping the plan would have a clause to prevent manufacturers from subcontracting outside of Canada and outside of Québec, but once more, the Conservatives did not listen.
The Conservatives made a choice by tabling a budget that provides only $170 million for the forestry sector. As hon. members can well imagine, for that reason alone the Bloc Québécois could not support this budget, because we cannot abandon workers in this sector. For example, in my riding, in the Papineau area, 45% of all jobs are in the forestry sector. We simply cannot ignore that industry. As I said, the same is true in all regions of Quebec.
Today, we are proposing loans, loan guarantees and refundable tax credits for research and development. We are not talking about mere tax credits for research and development. In order to get tax credits, one must first pay taxes. However, when companies are going through crises and cannot finance themselves, they are definitely not making profits. If that were the case, they would have no problems finding money. This means that if we only give them tax credits, these companies will not be able to benefit from them. Instead, we are asking for refundable tax credits. If a business has not made profits but is investing, then it would get a cheque from Ottawa. This would also help that company make investments.
We are asking for a policy to encourage the use of lumber in the construction and renovation of federal public buildings. This makes sense. Canada is one of the world's largest producers of lumber. It would only make sense if, in the federal buildings, some of the construction projects would involve the use of lumber. Finally, we are asking for measures to support energy and ethanol production from forestry waste, or biomass. Now is the time to do that. If we want to help these companies, we must invest. One way of diversifying their activities would be to use biomass to produce energy. This could help them increase their production.
Again, if Conservative, Liberal and New Democrat members were aware of what Quebeckers are going through, they would support the motion brought forward by the Bloc Québécois.