Good morning, Mr. Chair.
Good morning, members of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development.
My name is Luc Vachon. I'm the president of the Centrale des syndicats démocratiques, or CSD. I want to thank you for this opportunity to convey a message from our organization.
The CSD represents almost 2,000 employees working directly or indirectly in the forestry industry. These include about 400 workers at Groupe Rémabec's Parent mill in the Mauricie region and its L'Ascension mill in the Saguenay—Lac‑Saint‑Jean region.
Since the announcement of the order, employees in the forestry industry have been deeply concerned. We can neither support nor accept the proposed order in its current form. Media attention has focused on the boreal caribou issue. However, no pun intended, focusing solely and specifically on the caribou is—if I may—like failing to see the forest for the trees.
The Quebec forestry industry has been going through a series of crises for a number of years. So this isn't the first. Consider, for example, the fires of 2023, the ever‑increasing cost and loss of quality of wood supplies and the United States' ongoing implementation of countervailing tariffs on softwood lumber. I would say that the Quebec forestry industry is on the brink of another wave of mill closures and consolidations. It won't be the first time. A number of workers are facing a high risk of losing their jobs. These job losses would also have a disastrous impact on the employees' communities.
The federal government's impact analysis confirms this by estimating that approximately 1,400 jobs will be lost. In our opinion, this falls far short of the real impact on communities. In this environment, the order regarding the boreal caribou could make the situation much worse or sound the death knell for the already weakened industry. It's hard not to feel cynical about the order's actual effectiveness when we hear, for example, that Hydro‑Québec projects or the proposed gold mine in Abitibi may not be subject to the order.
Should people in the industry feel that they matter less? This raises questions. It's crucial to protect the boreal caribou. Forestry industry workers are ready, with the right guidance and support, to help with the effort. The caribou is considered an iconic animal for Quebec. I can say that the people whom we represent and who live in the regions are well aware of this.
However, these people's concerns must also be taken into account. No government, provincial or federal, has really done this to date. We deplore both Quebec's inaction and Ottawa's heavy‑handed approach. We know that Ottawa doesn't mean to punish the workers in the sector. However, the fact remains that this order, in its current form, could do just that.
We don't want forestry industry employees to bear the brunt of a political tug‑of‑war between Ottawa and Quebec. We believe that yet another dispute over jurisdiction between the two levels of government is pointless and that it will harm both the industry and environmental protection. We urge Ottawa and Quebec to work together to protect the caribou and put an end to the insecurity faced by forestry industry employees, so that promising long‑term solutions can finally be developed.
The $650 million that the federal government is prepared to give to British Columbia for its own environmental protection efforts attests to this. The same applies to the economic diversification fund provided by Ottawa and Quebec following the closure of the Gentilly‑2 nuclear power plant.
You can work together, and when you do, you get good results. In particular, we're calling for a collaborative approach guided by the principles of a fair transition. This means transforming Quebec's forestry industry into a modern, innovative and resilient industry that causes less damage to the environment. Rather than being a barrier, the caribou crisis must become an opportunity. In any case, the employees' concerns and needs must play a key role in this plan, in order to limit the impact and provide proper compensation. Rather than seeing workers as resources and thinking that they can simply change jobs, as if it were that straightforward in the regions, we believe that the focus should be on people and providing proper support during these changes.
How much is the federal government prepared to invest to encourage the modernization of the forestry industry—