International Trade committee  It's something we've been advocating quite strongly for. In essence, we're seeing an increased growth of natural resource products coming from the north—Alberta in particular. Having a national supply chain strategy would certainly help us look to increase investment within all

International Trade committee  I would add the caveat that it has to be the right deal. We cannot enter a deal that is a bad deal. Again, I'm speaking only on behalf of the Alberta Forest Products Association and, by extension, the Alberta Softwood Lumber Trade Council, but no deal is better than a bad deal, b

International Trade committee  I would echo that and also add that having the panel decisions gives us more quivers in our bow to actually come to the table with wins. If you look at Softwood Lumber IV, the panel processes stacked up a number of wins for Canada again and again, so it gave us a strong negotiati

International Trade committee  Quickly, that was more about the different policies at a provincial level that impact growth in a forestry sector. I apologize if I misspoke, but I was not speaking to U.S. differences within Canada. We very much believe in a team Canada approach when we look to negotiating a so

International Trade committee  Certainly. Thank you, Madam Chair. I would certainly echo Mr. Kennedy's comments around needing certainty. Business always needs certainty. It certainly helps with the investment climate. I would say that, from a forestry perspective—from an Alberta perspective—a number of facto

International Trade committee  You have it. That's our third concern.

International Trade committee  The U.S. administration is making those, in conjunction with the Department of Commerce, as I understand it.

International Trade committee  That's my understanding.

International Trade committee  We would like to see, at the highest levels, the administration on both sides lean in to ensure we have functioning panel processes. We fought long and hard through the NAFTA negotiations, and now through CUSMA, to get these panel processes. We would like to see those processes h

International Trade committee  I would argue that we believe—I believe—that the processes have not been adhered to in good faith. These processes were negotiated by both sides, both the United States and Canada, to ensure we had functioning panels so that when disputes came up under CUSMA or softwood lumber, w

International Trade committee  That's a great analogy to use, yes. I say that as an Edmonton Oilers fan.

International Trade committee  We believe that we need pressure at the highest levels of government to ensure we have properly operating panel processes.

International Trade committee  We believe that Global Affairs Canada...we believe that Minister Ng has really pushed this hard. She has pushed it, as I understand it, in every meeting she's had with her counterpart. We believe that this has been raised by Prime Minister Trudeau to President Biden. We'd just sa

International Trade committee  Well, in terms of being done differently, we just need to continue to push hard to ensure the U.S. is following in good faith these panel processes, getting proper appointments in place and getting the hearings happening concurrently.

International Trade committee  I will reiterate the three concerns we have with respect to the panel process. One, as you mentioned, is that it's exceedingly slow. Two, those who have been nominated, by and large, have been anything but independent and impartial. We've had a number of appointments in which