The Bloc’s 50 seats in parliament will give the Conservatives, led by prime minister Stephen Harper, enough votes to push the agreement through parliament when MPs reconvene after the summer break on September 18.
Conservative and Bloc MPs represent 175 seats in the Commons, while Liberals and the NDP, who will vote against the deal, have 131.
In another development, the Canadian government has given provinces two options for managing export volumes as part of the softwood lumber agreement.
The first option will see a Canadian export tax imposed at the border whenever lumber prices fall below US$355 per thousand board feet. The tax would start at 5% and grow to 15% if prices reach US$315 or below.
The second scenario involves border taxes ranging from 2.5% to 5%, depending on prices. Exports would be be capped via a quota based on each province’s slice of the total Canadian share of the US lumber market.
The British Columbia provincial government has confirmed that the province will be covered by the first option.
Meanwhile, the US government is formulating plans to distribute US$1bn of duties collected from Canadian timber companies during the dispute. A non-partisan foundation is expected to give away about US$450m to chartiable causes, including housing rehabilitation projects in Louisiana, with the rest going to US lumber companies.
