Mr. Chair, the forestry crisis dragged on for years before we came to power. The Liberal Party was completely off base when it did not support signing a softwood lumber agreement. The entire industry said that the softwood lumber crisis needed to be resolved. This industry's economy is not integrated like those of other manufacturing sectors. It is a competitive economy, which means that there has to be a softwood lumber agreement.
By signing this agreement when we came to power, $1 billion in overpayments was put back into the pockets of our industries. No one complained except the Liberal Party and the NDP—