Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak today on an issue that is extremely important of course for a region like mine, the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region, but also for the whole province of Quebec and for a number of regions across Canada.
Canada is a major exporter of lumber. Lumber ranks among our greatest resources. We have been engaged in a trade dispute with the United States for some 20 years. Given the escalation in the means used, we should clarify this whole issue once and for all and support our industry to the end, so that this sector like many others is covered by a true free trade policy.
The Bloc Quebecois is proposing the motion today to show solidarity with an industry that has succeeded in building a very strong coalition, which shows that people are prepared for comprehensive and global free trade. These people are prepared to begin to play, on April 1, by rules that should have been in place for quite some time.
I will not review the whole history of this issue, but since 1982 the Americans have challenged on a number of occasions the fact that the Canadian industry was subsidized, using all kinds of recourses in the process. This situation was primarily due to a different approach, since in Canada large areas of forest and land are publicly owned, while in the United States they are privately owned. The Americans have always felt that stumpage fees were perhaps too low and they have used that argument to claim that our industry was thus being subsidized.
They have made that claim wherever they could, including in the United States, but not exclusively. They won a number of cases internally, but when the time came to clarify the matter before organizations other than those pressured by the American lobby or by the U.S. industry, their claims were never validated.
For a variety of reasons, this led the Government of Canada to sign agreements on two occasions with the American government, the protocols of which included acceptance of a system limiting our ability to sell our products freely on the U.S. market. The first of these was in 1991 and the second in 1996. It was to run for five years, terminating on March 31.
For the past five years, the current system has included quotas. Of course, even if the government wanted to recognize past production, a quota system creates problems for us in that it is too discretionary as to who has or does not have the right of production. Some benefit from the quotas on what we are entitled to produce, without falling victim to the drastic American measures.
I do not know how many members have had this experience, but I and many others have heard complaints from people in our regions that they did not have a big enough quota or were not given any at all. This creates problems for new players in the market. Lacking quotas, they are at a disadvantage compared to those who do have one.
As a result, we end up with an economic system in which highly arbitrary choices influence the capacity of certain industries to develop and prevent others from developing.
The time has come for the government to stand up and vigorously defend Canadian and Quebec producers. Just to remind the House briefly, so we understand what we are talking about, the industry in Quebec produces about 25% of Canada's output. I am giving figures for Quebec, but you will no doubt hear members from other areas during the day telling you how important this industry is for their region.
The industry in Quebec produces seven billion board feet. Production is measured in board feet. There are over 30,000 jobs linked to the lumber industry in Quebec. The sawmill industry accounts for 20,000 jobs and the forestry industry, 10,000. This industry is important in a number of municipalities, as we can see from the figures given this morning.
There are 250 municipalities in Quebec where all of the manufacturing sector jobs are related to this sector. There are 250 municipalities. We are therefore talking about something really important to many communities throughout Quebec, and I am sure that this is true in many other regions in Canada. It is very common to have a lumber business as the major activity in a village with, of course, a few other economic activities about. But the manufacturing sector is where we have to keep improving.
Our ability to export lumber does not excuse us from other issues, such as better processing our products, producing more value added products or better using our natural resource. All of this is an extremely important issue we must not lose sight of. But trade rules must be the same for everyone.
I remember that, when I was first elected in 1993, I had the opportunity to have discussions with Tembec Inc., a major player in that industry back home. On the general topic of free trade, officials from that company said “Yes, this is one way free trade. The Americans really like having access to our market, while it is very difficult for us to have access to theirs”. They were referring to all these problems they were experiencing in their industry or foreseeing because of the complex situation and the numerous challenges by the Americans.
Americans are very good at extolling the virtues of free trade. They will do exactly that at the Summit of the Americas. They will make great speeches in support of a market covering all the Americas. But it is another story when they are confronted to realities like the one where part of their industrial sector could be threatened by the very productive companies we have here.
Incidentally, we always talk about productivity gaps between Canadians and Americans, but there are sectors, like mining and logging, where our productivity rates are excellent. We too often forget to mention that. Whatever we may think and despite the fact that traditional economy has been run down and called “old economy”, there have been massive investments in the natural resources sector. Such sectors are often among the most productive in the Quebec and Canadian economy.
People in these sectors want access to the U.S. market just as much as the Americans want free access to ours. That is what free trade is all about. But we are familiar with this tendency of the Americans to say one thing and, in practice, to block free trade. This is one area where the Government of Canada will have to stand behind an industry. There are major legal battles on the horizon.
Certain provinces are being accused of dumping. There is again talk of challenges because this industry is subsidized. The government must not abdicate its responsibilities towards the industry in this battle. It must not negotiate any sort of transitional agreement whatsoever. This is one thing that worries us.
The government clarified its position, but there was a suggestion of hesitation when it said there would be a transition towards free trade. No transition is necessary. On April 1, we will be in a free trade position. This means that businesses will be in a new phase; admittedly, some will have a transition to make, but we do not want a transitional agreement. We want full free trade and we want the government to mount a strong defence of our industry in these battles, to be there for us and to take the lead, so that we do not find ourselves in the situation we have been in for several years now. The result of arbitrary decisions has been that some companies have been able to grow while others have not, and some have been limited in what they could do.
This is an excellent test of the effectiveness of the Minister for International Trade. We will see whether or not he is up to the task. He has everything he needs to succeed. The industry is strong and parliament will be very solidly behind him, I am sure, with the Bloc Quebecois motion moved today. He has a responsibility to succeed. The Government of Canada must succeed because this industry is extremely important to our economy.
Of course things will be heated for a while, because the Americans will make all sorts of threats, but we must follow through so that we do not find ourselves having to make this same argument every five years. We must resolve this once and for all, clarify the situation, and enter fully into free trade.
We have every confidence that our industry will do well in these circumstances and that our economy will be able to grow further.
