Mr. Speaker, I thank our colleague for his whole speech.
However, I am surprised at all his criticism of our government, of my colleague, the parliamentary secretary, and of the minister.
Over the past few weeks and months our colleagues have been committed to working non-stop on negotiating with the U.S. negotiating team and with the industry. They have worked tirelessly with the goal of reaching an agreement.
The question I have for my colleague is the following: if this was so important to the Conservatives, then why did they allow the softwood lumber agreement to expire without entering into formal negotiations with the Americans?