SoVote

Mr. Dan Albas (Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, CPC)

Dec/1/21 7:37:23 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Speaker, let me give some context. In my riding, the Merritt Tolko mill has closed, and Tolko has closed in the Kelowna—Lake Country riding. The company is not leaving forestry. It is leaving British Columbia, and opening up in places like Louisiana. The member says they should be able to open up other places. On May 29, 2021, in a story by Lance Lambert in Fortune magazine, headlined “Biden administration could double Canadian lumber tariffs even as wood and construction costs soar”, the U.S. commerce department proposed doubling the tariff on Canadian lumber from 9% to 18%, a prospect that dismayed home builders. That was on May 29, 2021. The current government should have known. It should have been acting. It should have been engaging, and the minister cannot even tell us how many times she has met with the trade representative. What does the member have to say about a government that just does not seem to care about the Merritts and the Kelownas of the world, where those jobs are not coming back?

181 words

All Topics

Context: House Hansard - 8 - Dec/1/21

Mr. Dan Albas (Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, CPC)

Dec/1/21 8:14:12 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Chair, I would like to congratulate the member for his speech. When the Liberal government was elected in 2015, there were a lot of problems with the mandate letters that the government released. In fact, I remember asking the government to prioritize softwood lumber in the mandate letters in 2015. It was the first thing I said when this chamber came back after the election. Would the member agree that the government needs to prioritize this issue at a much higher level so his workers know their government is actively working on this? As I said earlier, the government only talks about softwood lumber when we talk about it in an emergency.

113 words

All Topics

Context: House Hansard - 8 - Dec/1/21

Mr. Dan Albas (Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, CPC)

Dec/1/21 8:40:22 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Chair, I would love to ask the member about Crown copyright, but that is a discussion for another day. We are seeing more and more investment shifting southward. That is bad for workers who want to put their skills to use and who want to put food on the table for their families. It is bad for those communities, specifically for those communities that rely extensively on forestry for that employment. We have seen the government plod along, not paying attention to this file. In fact, my very first words in the opening of Parliament in 2015 were whether the government would put in its mandate letter a specific reference to getting a softwood lumber arrangement. The Liberal government continues with the status quo. When members of Parliament, like this member and members from British Columbia, ask questions of the government, it seems it has no plan to deal with it. Would the member agree that the government needs to start to get serious on this file and actually engage with the Americans? What other things need to be done to get this job done?

186 words

All Topics

Context: House Hansard - 8 - Dec/1/21

Mr. Dan Albas (Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, CPC)

Dec/1/21 8:54:57 p.m.
Watch

Mr. Chair, I certainly do appreciate the member for Davenport, but, realistically, she said that things were going well with the United States. We have issues with electric car batteries. We have buy-American provisions. We have softwood lumber issues. This is all going horribly wrong. We all may be on team Canada, but when the manager is not doing a good job of managing the team, the manager gets replaced. This has been a terrible thing. I quoted earlier how Fortune magazine said in May that the Biden administration was looking to double softwood lumber tariffs, yet here we are near the end of the year and the government acts like this is something new. People are asking about their communities? What about the forestry workers and the communities that rely on forestry and are being left to deal with these things by themselves? What does the member have to say about the fact that the government knew in May that these tariffs were coming?

166 words

All Topics