Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my colleague's most appropriate question. I am not sure where in my speech he heard criticisms of or a direct attack on the previous government. On the contrary, we are here to work proactively and we have put clear measures in place to support the industry.
However, he raises a good point. He was part of the previous government, a Conservative government that lasted 10 years, so he is quite familiar with the reality facing the industry. He knows full well why we have no formal agreement in place. It is quite simple. The U.S. coalition plays an important role in these negotiations.
We are ready. We want to have a good agreement for the industry and for Canadians. Unfortunately, that is not how the American industry sees things. It is applying all sorts of terms and conditions that we cannot abide by.
Clearly, the member opposite, who knows the industry in and out, knows full well that the powerful U.S. coalition has a direct impact on our negotiations. We want to reach an agreement. The Minister of International Trade and the foreign affairs minister are working very hard and I am sure that we will reach an agreement. However, there is still a lot of work to be done and we are committed to reaching a formal agreement.
In the meantime, we must ensure that we have the measures to support the industry and its businesses. We have injected $867 million to ensure that our businesses can benefit from the measures they need to get through this crisis.
So far, the industry is doing relatively well, especially back home. We are still hiring and, again, the price of two-by-fours has gone from $500 to $650 per 1,000 board feet. That goes to show that even though the situation is far from perfect, we are continuing to do the work that we started.