Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, committee, for this invitation today to appear before your committee to contribute to your discussions on Bill C-50. By way of brief introduction, I am here on behalf of the members of the Forest Products Association of Canada. We're the na

Human Resources committee  I can't speak to the specifics of the bill from a technical standpoint, but certainly when you combine it with some of the other changes to the EI program, like the work-sharing program, those are going to be enormously helpful to our industry and our sector. Anything that helps

Human Resources committee  I don't know if it is the single biggest. I couldn't tell you what would be the single best improvement.

Human Resources committee  I represent 22 members, which means most of the production.

Human Resources committee  Only at the national level. We don't have that provincially.

Human Resources committee  Yes, of course, AbitibiBowater, Tembec and others.

Human Resources committee  They support our position.

Human Resources committee  Exactly.

Human Resources committee  They agree with our position on the bill.

Human Resources committee  I can't speak for the industry Mr. Chevrette represents, but our members who have operations in Quebec are in agreement.

Human Resources committee  In my opinion, no. Our members who operate in Quebec agree with the bill.

Human Resources committee  Mr. Chevrette and the other members who are not part of our association.

Human Resources committee  Yes, I know.

Human Resources committee  Thank you for the question. A starting point would be to reiterate that the industry continues to employ 273,000 Canadians directly. We've been at the leading edge of this economic downturn. When the U.S. housing market went down we were the first ones to feel that pain, so we'

Human Resources committee  Certainly the work-share program has been an enormous benefit to the industry. We know of a number of mills that would have probably closed permanently if it had not been for the work-share program. Companies were taking advantage of the program before the changes were implemen