Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thanks for your comments today, Catherine and Avrim.
I want to go back to this transformation mode that we've been in. Looking at my riding, I really believe that part of that transformation was due to mills in the industry that hadn't kept up with technology and wouldn't invest in technology. They were soon left far behind, as far as being competitive, even in domestic markets, with the mills that had invested. It's a sad tale but true.
We see all over the country where mills that have been simply too labour intensive and haven't done the investments have had to close because they couldn't compete. The other thing was that because of their proximity to the markets they were used to, the U.S. market, and with that in the sewer in the last several years, they simply couldn't take part in the overseas markets that came into being. If your mill was in the west and you prided yourself on being on the leading edge.... You're in that market now.
Mr. Gravelle talked about mills in northern Ontario maybe having to shut down. Maybe a technology deficit or proximity to where their market used to be is more a cause than anything else. That's a reality nobody likes to talk about, but can you comment about just how much of a reality that is?