Madam Speaker, I wish to inform you that I will be sharing my time with my colleague from Dufferin—Caledon.
I rise in the House today with great concern for the future of our economy, particularly in the key sectors of aluminum and softwood lumber, which are essential to the prosperity of Quebec and our regions. These industries support thousands of families and workers in Quebec. However, today, they are being threatened by a series of economic factors as a result of this Prime Minister's incompetence.
Quebec's aluminum industry produces roughly 30% of the world's aluminum, but it is vulnerable to unfair competition, mainly due to the infiltration of cheap Chinese aluminum. Our Quebec producers, who comply with strict environmental standards and invest in cleaner production, are being penalized by this unfair competition. Similarly, the softwood lumber industry, which contributes approximately $12 billion to the Canadian economy, is under constant pressure from countervailing duties imposed by the United States, which are making an already difficult situation for our producers even worse.
Yesterday, President-elect Trump announced that he plans to impose a 25% tariff on all Canadian products. This decision will have a direct impact on the aluminum and softwood lumber sectors.
These new tariffs will only increase production costs for our companies, making them less competitive and potentially putting thousands of jobs on the line in Quebec. This announcement is a major blow to industries already facing difficulties, yet the Liberal government has still not implemented any concrete measures to protect our workers and producers.
What is even more shocking is that these threats were predictable. President-elect Trump has been talking about the possibility of 25% tariffs on Canadian products for years, even during his election campaign. However, the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister were caught off guard. Just a few days ago, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance was asserting that Canada would be fine. Clearly, neither she nor the Prime Minister were following what the president-elect was saying. This government is clearly incapable of anticipating the economic threats we face. This government's inability to defend our economic interests has continually weakened our industries.
Clearly, what the Liberals are best at is weakening our economy and attacking our forestry industry. We saw that this summer with their threat to impose an order, supposedly to protect woodland caribou. In reality, experts cannot say for certain whether this order will protect caribou. One thing they can confirm, however, is that it will kill our forestry industry. The order that the Minister of Environment wants to impose on the region will jeopardize 1,400 forestry jobs in Saguenay—Lac-Saint-Jean and on the north shore. Worse still, the mayor of Sacré‑Cœur says that her municipality depends on logging and will turn into a ghost town if the order goes through. I should point out that the Bloc Québécois is complicit in all this. Bloc members voted twice to keep the current Prime Minister in place, leaving him free to impose an order that will be devastating for the region.
That is not all. We recently saw three sawmills close their doors in Quebec, including the one in Saint‑Ludger‑de‑Milot in my region, leaving 100 workers out on the street in a village with a population of 600. The closure was blamed on the high price of softwood lumber. All of this is due to the government's inability to negotiate an agreement on softwood lumber, to protect our forestry workers and to use a bit of common sense before presenting policies that are disconnected from the realities of Quebec's regions.
We have been under this government for nine years now. There have been three U.S. presidents, but there is still no agreement on softwood lumber. In contrast, the previous Conservative prime minister managed to get one signed 80 days after he was elected.
Another critically important sector in my region is aluminum. It is essential that we eliminate the carbon tax, which is overburdening producers by increasing their production costs and compromising their competitiveness. This tax must be eliminated to ensure that our businesses can remain competitive on the international market, especially in the face of competitors who are not subject to similar constraints. It is also imperative that we cancel all tax hikes for producers and workers. Our businesses are facing major challenges, and the additional tax burden is only making matters worse.
My riding is home to Rio Tinto and several other companies that supply the aluminum industry in the region. However, this sector is being threatened by Chinese products that are produced with no environmental standards and no protection for workers. Unlike the Prime Minister, my leader understands that aluminum is an economic driver in my region. In fact, he was in Saguenay this summer to talk about his proposals for protecting our Canadian aluminum.
A common-sense government will impose tariffs on Chinese aluminum to protect jobs in Saguenay and to protect the environment as well. As I said, my region produces the cleanest aluminum in the world. Every tonne of aluminum produced in Saguenay reduces greenhouse gas emissions. We produce two tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions for every tonne of aluminum. In China, it is 14 tonnes.
The tax hikes that Canadian companies are subject to make our producers less competitive and slow down innovation. We need to reduce the tax burden so that our industries can grow, hire staff and continue to produce in Canada. The role of government is to defend the interests of our workers and our industries. However, in the Liberal era, this government has consistently been reactive rather than proactive. Not only are we suffering the consequences of weak leadership, but we are also suffering the consequences of decisions that were made without any serious consultation with the sectors involved. Our key industries, such as aluminum and softwood lumber, deserve a government that anticipates challenges, faces them head-on and protects our jobs, our families and our economic future. In addition to these economic issues, it is clear that the Liberal government's weakness in managing our borders and our country's security contributed to Donald Trump's threat to impose 25% tariffs on Canadian products.
Conservatives have always advocated for concrete action to secure our borders and fight these threats while protecting our economy. Our vital industries like aluminum and lumber deserve a government that acts to protect the jobs and competitiveness of Canadian businesses. We must stand up for our workers, our companies and our economic future in the face of these external threats. The time has come to put an end to Liberal inaction and take concrete action to ensure Quebec and Canada are prosperous. Canada first. It is time for an election.