SoVote

Mr. Bob Zimmer (Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, CPC)

Dec/1/21 10:41:56 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I would like to thank the member for Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier for sharing his time with me tonight. Actions speak louder than words, and that is a theme I am going to get to. The lack of a softwood lumber agreement has affected my riding greatly. We are in northern B.C., where lumber and forestry are what we do. I want to take us to the time of Obama and the Prime Minister, back in 2015, when there was a 100-day promise. Let me read from an article from The Globe and Mail in March 2015: Two-thirds of the way through the 100-day countdown set in March by [the Prime Minister] and President Barack Obama to agree on the parameters of a new bilateral softwood lumber deal, time is fast running out to reach an agreement before U.S. election fever overwhelms the negotiations. The Canadian lumber industry is still hoping that talks at the bureaucratic level will have advanced far enough that Mr. Obama and [the Prime Minister] can iron out what differences remain when they meet at the North American Leaders' Summit in late June.... The last [softwood lumber agreement] ended in October 2015 [I might note] with the expiry of a 2006 deal that instituted managed trade between the two countries that are supposedly the world's biggest champions of free trade... Here we are, with a bunch of promises from many members across the way that this is going to get done. They are saying, “Just relax, we need more time.” That promise was made six years ago, and we still have not seen that delivered. That is why this discussion is happening tonight, and I am glad for the opportunity we have. It even escalated. We saw the President of the United States, and I was about 20 feet away from him when he came to Ottawa to speak, and there were actually expectations. The Conservatives had lost the election, and we were thinking this was maybe a silver-lining moment for us: At least we were going to get a good trade deal across the line. President Obama gave a great speech in Centre Block, right in front of the Speaker, and we expected the deal to get signed that afternoon. There was nothing. All we saw was Air Force One leaving Ottawa with no new softwood lumber agreement. Fast-forward to 2021, and where has the softwood lumber agreement gone? I was a member of the natural resources committee and the international trade minister was there. She had just met with the new Biden administration. They had met in a bilateral meeting. My obvious question to her was whether she had discussed softwood lumber in their meeting. She was very vague. When somebody is very vague about these things that are very specific and very important billion-dollar deals, I start to get a little suspicious. It became obvious in an article in Politico. This is from Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative. This is after she promised that she had been discussing this with the trade negotiator and that they were actually working on a softwood lumber agreement. This is what the trade representative from the U.S. said: In order to have an agreement and in order to have a negotiation, you need to have a partner. And thus far, the Canadians have not expressed interest in engaging. It is pretty serious when the U.S. trade rep is saying they want to do this, but so far the international trade minister has not even reached out. Therefore, those promises ring hollow and again it goes to my theme: Actions speak louder than words. What are the Liberals really doing? They cannot try to infer that they want a softwood lumber agreement. They have to be very firm about these things. I might add that a previous Conservative government got the first one done in 2006. We renewed it in 2013, and it expired in October 2015. Some are saying over there that they cannot get it done. We got it done twice, so we can get it done and it is proof that, if the intention is really there, the current government could get it done too. I will finish with this. This is a statement from the minister from her own Global Affairs website, on October 6, 2021, in Ottawa, Ontario. It states: Today, the Honourable...Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade, met with Katherine Tai, United States Trade Representative, on the margins of the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting in Paris, France.... [The Minister of International Trade] reiterated her concerns about Buy America provisions, U.S. tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber and solar products,.... That was October 6, 2021, when negotiations were supposed to be happening all along. Actions speak louder than words. We want some action on softwood lumber from the government.

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

Mr. Bob Zimmer

Dec/1/21 10:48:33 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I will commend the minister and our member as well. Our member from Saskatchewan has been working on the U.S. file for many years. I will give credit where credit is due. At least it is happening now. We hope some good things can happen, but I will remind the member that we had great fanfare when we had a sitting president and a prime minister who shook hands. In the first hundred days of the softwood lumber agreement, what happened? They had the ability to pull it off then, with two willing partners, yet all we see right now is a doubling of tariffs recently after this similar meeting happened between the Prime Minister and President Biden. Frankly, I do not have much faith that they are going to get it across the line. I hope they do for the sake of our people in the lumber industry. Again, actions speak louder than words, and up until now, six years of non-action does not speak very loudly to me.

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

Mr. Bob Zimmer

Dec/1/21 10:50:34 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I respect the member from Quebec, who is my former colleague on the natural resources committee. All I would say is that the industry originally wanted an agreement back in 2006. They wanted it in 2015 as well. Much of our industry, as the member well knows, and mills from my area, Mackenzie, are moving south. Good Canadian companies are moving their mills south of the border because of this lack of a softwood lumber agreement. It simply does not make financial sense for them to stay on the Canadian side of the border anymore. We need a softwood lumber agreement to bring stability to the forestry sector, straight up. The forestry sector is attached to many people and homes, people who are not going to have Christmas dinner because their dad or mom lost their job at the mill. We need to care about those people, who have lost jobs because of the lack of a softwood lumber agreement. That is who we need to care about tonight and who the government should care about in getting that deal done.

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

Mr. Bob Zimmer

Dec/1/21 10:52:38 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I would do one better than that, just like what similarly happened when we had the agreement before and $4 billion was returned to Canadians as a result of that deal. My hope would be that those tariffs that have been collected in the past get returned to Canadians in this deal, which will be inked hopefully very soon. Am I confident that is going to happen? Not very. I am hopeful, yes. Again, actions speak louder than words and we need to see some action from the Minister of International Trade.

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