Thank you, Mr. Chair.
A number of jobs in my community depend on forestry.
Today we've heard the unions approach the government and the forestry industry to really rethink forestry. They want us to be able to provide children in our rural communities with jobs today and tomorrow that they can be proud of and that will allow them to prosper and fully participate in the economy of tomorrow.
The employees are making a heartfelt plea, and I hear it loud and clear in my region.
The employees have ideas, and we have to listen to them. The unions have actually proposed one of those ideas, which would be to stop producing four-by-fours and then send them to the United States or elsewhere. We can do more with the wood we have. We can do more processing. We have extremely well-trained and highly skilled employees who work hard.
Madam Plotkin, you were at the point in your opening remarks where you were about to say the “good news”. The good news is resetting the industry so that we can all prosper, especially in rural Canada. I really wanted to hear about that.