Madam Speaker, British Columbia has everything we need for a strong, prosperous forestry sector for decades to come. There are 200,000 Canadian loggers, mill workers and forest product-makers who feed their families thanks to our forestry sector, including thousands in southern British Columbia. However, a decade of Liberal mismanagement has seen B.C. lose more than half of its pulp and paper mills. Ottawa has become numb to our mill closures. When a mill dies, it puts a whole town at risk.
My message to the Liberals is simple: focus on what Canada can control, prioritize lumber in all trade talks, invest in biofuel to keep pulp mills alive, and treat this sector as the critical part of our economy that it is.