SOFTWOOD LUMBER

Thursday February 7, 2002

Mr. Bill Blaikie (Winnipeg—Transcona, NDP): Mr. Speaker, certain kinds of religious fundamentalism are not the only kind of fundamentalism that Canadians should be worried about.

At the moment our softwood lumber industry is under attack by American free market fundamentalism and a kind of economic terrorism and hostage taking of many tens of thousands of workers in B.C. and elsewhere.

I want to ask the minister of trade or the Prime Minister, if negotiation is going nowhere, what are they going to do to ensure that certain companies and workers at risk survive the litigation? What are they going to do? Are they going to get the EDC to put up a bond to help these people survive until the WTO renders a decision? What are they going to do for these people?

Right Hon. Jean Chrétien (Prime Minister, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, what we are doing for the workers is exactly what we have to do. We are working with the provincial governments and the industry to make sure that the Americans will respect the free trade treaty that we have signed with them and we have taken other action in case they did not want to follow the international rules. We have made a case in front of the WTO to show again to the Americans that they have to respect the international laws of commerce, particularly the treaty that they signed with Canada in the free trade agreement between Canada and the United States and Mexico.

Mr. Bill Blaikie (Winnipeg—Transcona, NDP): A supplementary, Mr. Speaker, to the Prime Minister: If this case does go to the WTO, as the Prime Minister has suggested it might, what is the government going to do in the meantime for those companies and workers who cannot survive for the time that it takes to litigate this in front of the WTO?

There have been suggestions made about the EDC having a more effective bond program, et cetera. Could the minister of trade or the Prime Minister tell us, concretely, what they are going to do for these people in the meantime so they do not go under?

Hon. Pierre Pettigrew (Minister for International Trade, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, let me be very clear that the government's favourite course remains the bilateral solution to identify a long term solution to this one. We do continue the litigation road, and indeed, if we have to be on that road we are very confident that Canada will win there.

As to our relationship with industry and that we are able to withstand that pressure, I can say that we have been speaking with industry this week. We are still in touch as we have been every week since the beginning. We are acting very closely with industry and the workers on that front.