Finance committee  I will ask our economist to reply, but I think that under the circumstances, we could say that it will.

Finance committee  Before coming here, I read chapter 3 of the budget very carefully, page by page. On page 67, the government announces $200 billion. On page 74, the government explained that this refers to providing financing for credit markets, $200 billion for credit markets that will save Cana

Finance committee  I must say that Quebec is quite advanced on many fronts, in that it already has a protected area network that amounts to 8%; it already has pilot projects on ecosystem management; a plan for the woodland caribou is being formulated; it already has a chief forester who monitors fo

Finance committee  Me neither. Personally, you can understand why I am somewhat at a loss because, unfortunately, this statement has taken root in public opinion. As the saying goes, “Keep throwing us mud at the wall, some of it will stick.“ But this is false. If I were to give you a loan at the g

Finance committee  Yes, perhaps we could do this because I can tell you that the government is attending the same conferences as we are, with their lawyers, when it is a question of analyzing legalities. As you know, forests are exclusively under provincial jurisdiction and international trade is t

Finance committee  Allow me to say at the outset that Quebec is the only place where the entire forest industry officially voted in favour of the softwood lumber agreement. There is even an action plan to protect this agreement, because we cannot afford to pay anti-dumping duties of 35% or 40%. In

Finance committee  They are confusing their associations. Mr. Lebel is referring to the FPCA, which has 14 members in Canada. It is a national association of paper manufacturers. My association has 300 members, and my mandate is to obtain loan guarantees. That is what I explained to Mr. Lebel on th

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. To simplify things, I will take the two five-minute blocks, that is the one granted to my colleague Mr. Vincent and myself, for a total of 10 minutes. The forest industry has been in a crisis since 2005. Some levels of government are only starting to unders

Finance committee  Actually, it doesn't change much, because of the cyclical crisis. Whether or not we had an agreement, it doesn't get houses built in the United States and it doesn't change the rate of the Canadian dollar. But we have no penalty for the little wood that is getting in at present.

Finance committee  Every cent represents $50 million in losses for the Canadian industry. You can imagine the loss we have suffered. When I took office three years ago, the dollar was at 71¢. Now it's at par, if not higher. It's a tragedy.

Finance committee  It would not only free up jobs, it would also preserve jobs for young people. When a paper mill has to lay off 200 people, it does it according to seniority, because of the collective agreement, and I respect that, when there are people who are 56 or 57 or 58 years old who would

Finance committee  All of our big members, like AbitibiBowater, Domtar, Kruger and Tembec, belong to the FPAC.

Finance committee  Certainly we can have a vision for the future, but in the short term, how are we going to assist the communities and the workers in the regions, and the industry, to get through this? That is the question. Mr. Comuzzi said that speeches are not what is needed. That is exactly wha

Finance committee  I think we have to take both short-term and medium-term measures. I pretty much agree with Mr. Coles on the medium and long term, but I also agree with Mr. Hanlon on the medium term. In any event, we have to do something in the short term, because otherwise we are not going to be

Finance committee  Good afternoon. I am going to give you a brief description of our industry. In Quebec, it has annual turnover of $13 billion, and involves 200,000 direct or indirect jobs, 360 factories and 250 municipalities, about 150 of which depend solely on forestry. This gives you an idea