Prices currently at 'rock bottom' in U.S
TORONTO -- The potential loss of thousands of jobs in Canada's lumber industry has nothing to do with the new deal on softwood with the U.S., Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday.
"No, quite the opposite," Harper said when asked whether it was costing Canadian jobs.

In fact, Harper said, the deal that took effect yesterday was necessary to bring stability to a troubled industry.
"We had to get the softwood-lumber deal signed, otherwise things were going to get a lot worse a lot more quickly," he said.
The seven-year accord replaces U.S. duties on Canadian softwood with a sliding export tax that adjusts for low lumber prices.
In Victoria, B.C. Forests Minister Rich Coleman said the deal should clear the air after years of instability. But the province's NDP forests critic Bob Simpson said the implementation couldn't come at a worse time.
Producers will be facing a 15-per-cent border tax at a time when lumber prices "are at rock bottom," Simpson said.
On Wednesday, Domtar Inc. announced the indefinite closure of four sawmills and about 950 job cuts, most in Quebec. A day earlier, Abitibi-Consolidated said it was cutting nearly 700 jobs in Quebec.
In Toronto for a law-and-order announcement, Harper blamed the job losses on a "softening" of the U.S. lumber market, where demand has dropped because rising mortgage rates have squeezed the housing market and reduced new home starts.
The agreement will help mitigate the impact of that, he said.
He also cited "some long-term trends" in the forestry industry that he called "troubling."
"There are challenges in the industry, particularly in the pulp and paper side," Harper said.
"We've said all along the softwood-lumber deal is necessary to provide stability for our industry in the future." At the same time, he said, the agreement is not by itself "sufficient" to deal with the problems.
As a result, the minority Conservative government planned to come forward with "additional measures," though he did not elaborate on what those might be.