When a farm loses a third or a half of its income to cover its living expenses, it cannot keep that up for many years. Equity deteriorates.
What happens in real terms? That shortfall will mean an accumulation of accounts payable and short-term debts, which will eventually be consolidated. But there is a limit to that. Should the situation continue for a few more years, it may lead to the closing of companies and job losses, and it may have a ripple effect.
The document we are presenting to you talks about the ripple effect within the sector. Our system generates more than 80,000 jobs. We can easily establish ratios. Each $100 million the industry is losing eliminates a certain number of jobs. A loss of $200 million will surely lead to a few thousand jobs potentially being lost.
In the enthusiasm of my testimony earlier, I forgot to submit the list of companies that support our requests. That can also respond to the question raised by Mr. Gourde earlier. We asked our 150 delegates from the entire province to meet with processors, small and large, on their territory and to ask them whether they support the requests we are making. As Mr. Benoit said earlier, more than 50 of them support us. We have submitted that list of companies to the clerk. The vast majority of companies support us in that effort and agree that, if the rules are the same for everyone, they will respect them.
I invite you to look at the list. Agropur is actually one of the companies that support us, and we are grateful for that.