For now, everyone has obviously taken a step back.
We were just acquired by the Coopérative forestière Ferland‑Boilleau, who truly has strategic visions and is envisaging interesting synergies. However, as far as orders for new equipment at the sawmills, such as kilns or planers, are concerned, everything has slowed down because no one knows what to expect in the future.
Earlier there was talk of alternatives, either wood from private forests, wood from auctions and unharvested wood. In the Saguenay—Lac‑Saint‑Jean region, these things are already taken into account. Extreme efforts are already being made to try to supply the plants, but our supply pledges, our volumes in private forests and our volumes at the auction house do not even meet our plant needs. The pressure is even greater on auctioned wood. For companies like the one I represent, in other words SMEs, that means we have to fight on markets with much larger sawmills. We are still having a hard time coming out ahead. That puts us at high risk, makes us very vulnerable. Bankers being bankers, they are not going to lend money to vulnerable companies.