Pacific Gateway Act  Mr. Speaker, the minister has raised many questions. I will start with the last one first. He is well aware, the New Democratic Party administrations have the best financial fiscal period return record of any party in the country and that comes from the Department of Finance. It is not New Democrats saying that, it is Liberals saying that.

Pacific Gateway Act  Mr. Speaker, it is hard to respond briefly to a question like that. Very clearly, the hon. member is referring back to last spring. There were two votes on the budget. The first vote was on $4.6 billion in corporate tax breaks and the Conservative Party chose to maintain the government at that time.

Pacific Gateway Act  Mr. Speaker, I indeed have the same problem that the hon. member has. I have been looking for some indication of firmness, some action that may have taken place since the Bush administration arbitrarily ripped up the dispute settlement mechanism of NAFTA. I have not seen a single example.

Pacific Gateway Act  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise on Bill C-68, an act to support the development of Canada's Pacific gateway. I will begin by saying that we in the NDP support the bill in principle, but we have serious concerns about the government's overall approach. The bill itself is innocuous.

Pacific Gateway Act  Mr. Speaker, I have two comments and two questions coming out of the member's presentation. The first is on prosperity. He mentioned something about the current government having brought prosperity to Canada. The member must be aware that the latest Statistics Canada figures show that since 1989, four of the five quintiles, in other words, when we divide the Canadian population into income sectors, the lowest 20%, the second lowest 20%, the middle 20% and then the two upper 20%, have seen a decline in real income.

Softwood Lumber  Mr. Chair, I very much appreciate both questions from my colleague. First, the question on the negotiations is quite worrisome. In my opinion, the government is preparing to negotiate. It has already moved ahead on this, but has not taken any concrete action. There is cause for concern that the government is trying to negotiate a cut-rate deal because it does not have any other plan of action.

Softwood Lumber  Mr. Chair, it is difficult to know where to start with a rant like that, but I will start by saying the reason the NDP is currently leading in the polls in British Columbia is that 80% of British Columbians, as the hon. member knows very well, support the idea of tying an export tax, an export levy on energy to the dispute settlement mechanism that was arbitrarily ripped up by President Bush.

Softwood Lumber  Mr. Chair, what a silly comment from a member who should know better. We are calling for an export levy on energy exports. Energy has been tied in with dispute settlement since the very beginning of negotiations on NAFTA and the free trade agreement. What we are calling for is that linkage with dispute settlement.

Softwood Lumber  Madam Chair, to start, I just want to mention that the NDP and the other parties fully support the idea of loan guarantees and assuming the legal fees for companies that are in this situation because of the government's inaction. It is absolutely not their fault and Parliament must definitively support these companies and these communities.

Softwood Lumber  Madam Chair, I appreciated the comments by the Leader of the Opposition on the inaction of the Liberal government. There is absolutely no doubt that we have had two months and the one action that the government undertook was a phone call. It is absolutely unbelievable that it would take two months to make a phone call and no other action has taken place.

Export and Import of Rough Diamonds Act  Mr. Speaker, the key is the vocational training itself. Given the unemployment rate and the fact that most jobs that have been created over the past decade have been part time or temporary in nature, if the right training exists, then people will want to get into those types of jobs.

Export and Import of Rough Diamonds Act  Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned earlier, members from all four corners of the House certainly agree about the importance of the legislation. It reads very blandly, as most bills do, but its impact is significant. We cannot minimize or in any way try to limit the immense significance that it would have over time if we could completely eliminate the blood diamond trade and its impact on civil conflicts such as, for example, the conflict in Angola, where billions of dollars were brought in to fuel that civil conflict and the rebels through the sale of blood diamonds.

Export and Import of Rough Diamonds Act  Mr. Speaker, I feel very strongly that we need value added on our exports, not only in the diamond sector. I come from British Columbia which is a province where we export raw logs. That is a sore point with many British Columbians. When we export those raw logs, we export job.

Export and Import of Rough Diamonds Act  Mr. Speaker, it stems from how we move this process along. Under the Kimberley Process we have moved from a high of 6% of blood diamonds in the world diamond trade down to 1% or slightly lower, as most estimates have it. We are looking at a review on that next year. The question is, how do we move it along more quickly?

Export and Import of Rough Diamonds Act  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to Bill S-36, an act to amend the export and import of rough diamonds act. The act would serve to help us meet our commitments under the Kimberley process certification scheme. I would like to say at the beginning that in this corner of the House we are in favour, in principle, of the bill moving forward but we are hoping at the committee stage there will be an examination of this important legislation, perhaps looking at the potential for improving it.