International Trade committee  I appreciate that. If you want, we can talk about that afterwards with Mr. Julian and maybe go for a beverage. I had a small business in Alberta, and one of the concerns is that there seem to be fewer and fewer small to medium-sized enterprises participating in the free trade agreement.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Gentlemen, good morning and thank you for being here. When our colleague Mr. Julian insisted on hearing from you, I thought it was a very good idea, first, because this brings an important dimension to any free trade agreement with the countries of North America, South America and so on, and, second, because it appeals to us because of globalization and multilateral, international agreements, the WTO and so on.

Softwood Lumber Products Export Charge Act, 2006  Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her very well thought out presentation on the softwood sellout. She is part of an NDP caucus that is the only caucus actively opposing this sellout and all the negative repercussions to the softwood industry and the softwood communities across the country.

International Trade committee  The solution is very simple. We can have an all-party agreement to complete the debate on second reading by a certain date. We'll then have dates to propose to the liaison committee. That's not a difficult thing to do. If the liaison committee is meeting on Thursday afternoon, I believe we could have an agreement in place by Thursday morning, the next date of the international trade committee.

Softwood Lumber Products Export Charge Act, 2006  Mr. Speaker, three minutes is not a lot of time. I have reviewed the botched legislation, Bill C-24, and the mistakes that the government has made on that bill. I would like to come back to the principle of the softwood sellout itself. Then, before I sit down, I will be offering an amendment to the amendment offered by the member for Beauséjour.

Softwood Lumber Products Export Charge Act, 2006  Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to the new Bloc Québécois international trade critic, and I congratulate him on his new caucus portfolio. My question is very straightforward. This agreement is not good for the softwood lumber industry across the country. We know that it is not at all in the best interest of the Quebec industry.

Norad  moved That this House support the government's ratification of the North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD) Agreement. He said: Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to take part in this special debate this evening, and support this motion. I should indicate at the outset that I will be splitting my time with the hon. member for Carleton—Mississippi Mills, the very able Minister of National Defence.

Canada Transportation Act  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak on Bill C-11. The NDP finds that there are some aspects of this bill that are worthy of consideration. I will address the aspects that Canadians might consider less interesting a little later. The principle set out in this bill is that this is a government that listens.

Softwood Lumber  Incredibly, Mr. Speaker, the government is now intervening in court to stop Canadians from winning once and for all on softwood lumber. Winning means that the illegal tariffs come off and every penny has to be repaid. There are no more appeals. We are months away from winning.

Foreign Affairs committee  —I'm not entirely clear about what types of industries or what type of industry approach you're suggesting we should move towards greater protectionism for. On the contrary, Canada continues to look for ways to expand trade into new markets, and in some cases to look at furthering free trade agreements, with India for example, as my colleague Mr.

International Trade committee  I'd like to move on to this issue, which was actually raised by my colleague, around the question of litigation. He asked why the Americans would want to bring an end to the agreement after 18 months. Very clearly, the answer is that they get a billion dollars; they get to erase four years of legal victories, where we have not come yet to those two final hurdles that would install in jurisprudence the fact that Canadian lumber is not subsidized; and in a sense, they get the proceeds of trade crime.

International Trade committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe the House Liaison Committee will be called back earlier to meet on that, so that we can get things going and hold these hearings the first week that Parliament reconvenes. I know there will be a lot of witnesses very interested in meeting with this committee.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I don't think the first one will be contentious at all. Given the continued concerns expressed by many witnesses appearing before the Standing Committee on International Trade on the softwood lumber agreement, and the importance of the matter to the province of British Columbia, which accounts for over half of all Canadian softwood exports, and in order that this committee obtain all the information required to make its recommendation to the House, I move that this committee conduct hearings in Vancouver upon the return of Parliament.

International Trade committee  Mr. Emerson, I'd like to move on to the running rules. I would submit that as a CEO, you would have opposed the running rules in this draft agreement. It's retroactive, and these are monthly penalties. Essentially, companies that write to us as members of the international trade committee won't know whether they're earning or losing money on a given product in a given month.

International Trade committee  You didn't answer my question about where litigation could go. Essentially the decision on Tembec, which comes through the Court of International Trade, is appealable once. It's a 12-month appeal, and that appeal goes to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. That is the case with Tembec.