Minister of Natural Resources  Mr. Speaker, as indicated yesterday, this is a serious matter. There are clear procedures in place in our offices. Those procedures were not followed. Corrective action has been taken. I offered my resignation to the Prime Minister. He did not accept it. A member of my staff offered her resignation and I did accept it.

Minister of Natural Resources  Mr. Speaker, as we have indicated, this is a serious matter and clear procedures were not followed in the handling of these documents. Corrective action has been taken. I offered my resignation to the Prime Minister, but he did not accept it. However, the individual who is responsible for the documents that day has tendered a resignation and I have accepted it.

Forestry Industry  Mr. Speaker, further on the black liquor tax credit for pulp producers in the United States, my colleague, Minister Day, of course has been working—

Forestry Industry  Mr. Speaker, in terms of aid to the forestry sector, in our unprecedented cross-country consultations we spoke to both industry and communities about the best way to support them through Canada's economic action plan. We have developed the $1 billion community adjustment fund that is beneficial for that.

Forestry Industry  Mr. Speaker, I will be more careful with respect to names. I want to indicate that the black liquor subsidy in the United States is of great concern. My colleague, the Minister of International Trade, has been working with the United States and bringing attention to the detrimental effect it has on the industry and what a distortion it is.

Minister of Natural Resources  Mr. Speaker, clear procedures were in place in my office and, as indicated, they were not followed in this case. We have taken strong and corrective action. The person who was responsible for the documents has offered to resign and I have accepted it. That is clear accountability.

Minister of Natural Resources  Mr. Speaker, we have treated this as a serious matter because it is, indeed, a serious matter. Procedures that were set out in my office regarding the handling of documents were not followed. We did take corrective action and, as I have mentioned, I have offered my resignation to the Prime Minister, if he chose to take it, but he did not take it.

Nuclear Waste  Mr. Speaker, as I indicated, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization, which is a separate organization, is carrying out the mandate of determining a willing and informed community for the purposes of nuclear waste disposal and storage in the long term. I invite the opposite member to give that feedback to this organization and it will take it as part of its decision making for a suitable community for this project.

Minister of Natural Resources  Mr. Speaker, this is a serious matter. Clear procedures that were set out in my office with respect to the handling of documents were not followed and, as a result, we have taken corrective action. The individual who was responsible for handling these documents has offered to resign and I accepted it.

Minister of Natural Resources  Mr. Speaker, I am a little concerned with the language being utilized by the member opposite. He utilized the term “subservient”. The people who work for us on the Hill work very hard. Indeed, in this case, clear procedures were not followed and the individual took responsibility by offering to resign and I accepted it.

Minister of Natural Resources  Mr. Speaker, the one thing I have learned in the House is that just because one yells louder does not make it any more compelling an argument. This is a serious matter. Clear procedures were not followed and corrective action has been taken. The individual responsible for handling these documents offered to resign and I accepted it.

Minister of Natural Resources  Mr. Speaker, I have indicated to the House already the steps that have taken place. We do treat it as a very serious matter. Procedures that we had in place were not followed by a member of my staff and corrective action has been taken. As well, it is important to note that I did offer to resign to the Prime Minister and he did not accept my resignation.

Minister of Natural Resources  Mr. Speaker, as I have indicated to the House, we do take this as a serious matter. In fact, that is why corrective action was taken instantaneously, once it was discovered that the procedures were not followed. I have offered my resignation to the Prime Minister, if he felt it necessary, but he did not accept my resignation.

Minister of Natural Resources  Mr. Speaker, as I have indicated, we treat this as a very serious matter and it is a very serious matter. Clear procedures in my office that had been set out regarding this material were not followed and as a result corrective action has been taken. The person who had the responsibility for the documents offered to resign and I accepted it.

Minister of Natural Resources  Mr. Speaker, as we have indicated and as the member has pointed out, this is a serious matter and we have treated it as such. The procedures in place were clearly not followed and corrective action has been taken. I have accepted the resignation of the individual who was responsible for the documents.