Madam Chair, I thank my colleague for his question, but not for his jeers. That party jeers at the government far too often. It does not matter; we will have a constructive dialogue.
Indeed, part of my riding is an RCM that depends on the forestry industry. There are border mills in my region, and I am well aware of the problems facing that industry at this time.
Clearly, it is a question of markets. We need to both consolidate what we have and give the industry the boost it needs to advance into the economy of the future. That is why the latest investment announced in our budget—$100 million over the next four years—says a great deal. The Forest Products Association of Canada welcomed this investment, which it described as the boost it needed to develop new markets for bioproducts. When a sawmill has logs to cut, they must be cut. However, we must use all the byproducts to create bioproducts in order to bring in additional revenue, instead of treating byproducts as waste.
We are also providing industries with support to deal with the market downturn. We are in the midst of a global economic crisis. I would remind my colleague that through EDC, nearly $14 billion has gone towards financially supporting hundreds of forestry companies in Quebec. Between January 2009 and March 31, 2010, we invested $14 billion. That is an enormous amount, representing significant support. Yes, we need to continue. We announced this new measure in budget 2010, in order to make even greater progress and better position ourselves in the economy of the future.