Mr. Speaker, there are a couple of trigger words that I am starting to get nervous about when I hear them from my Liberal colleagues.
One is “unacceptable”. I just had a phone call from some folks who are struggling with the Phoenix pay system, and they have heard from representatives and in calls to the government that the travesty of the Phoenix pay system is unacceptable. It has been unacceptable for a couple of years, and it continues to be unacceptable. As a friend of mine, Coral from Prince Rupert, B.C., asked, “What does unacceptable mean?”
The second term is that this is a “high priority” for the government. The softwood lumber agreement and getting it settled is a high priority. I share the member's concerns, because I represent a place that is even more impacted, I would argue, but I do not know all the details, than Mactaquac. My riding is hugely and significantly impacted by not having a deal on the table, and yet we hear that it is a high priority for the government and is of greatest urgency.
We see the Prime Minister go to Washington and somehow develop a friendship with the president, which is remarkable in some ways when we think about it, but hopefully, it is to get something done. When does he expect this deal to actually get done? That is what the families I represent want to know. This is my specific question, what impact will it have on a per day basis, not having a deal? Does the government have an estimate of what it costs the Canadian forestry industry every day that the deal is not acquired?