Thank you, Mr. Martel.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
To the witnesses, I am obviously not from Quebec, but when I ran for politics last year, the main thing I ran on was protecting our rural way of life. I feel an incredible kinship with our witnesses today, as they are defending their own way of life, it seems to me, while having an “Ottawa knows best” government running roughshod not only over their livelihoods, but over their entire community. I appreciate your very passionate and personal testimony today.
During the conversation with Minister Guilbeault a couple of hours ago, I noticed that in response to MP Chatel, he said that when workers come here to committee, the Conservatives ignore what they say. We are not ignoring you. We hear you.
My colleague Mr. Martel has been doing a fantastic job of defending not only the rights of his riding but also the important work the forestry sector and forestry workers do across Quebec and, in turn, across all of Canada. During his conversation with the mayor of Sacré-Coeur, he asked her what would happen if this order were enacted, and she suggested the region would “become a ghost town.” Minister Guilbeault replied today during our conversation that it was curious, because it was not the message the workers gave him when he met with them.
To close out this meeting, I would like to have Mr. Dufour, Ms. Dufour and Mr. Dionne each give their assessment of the workers' view. Are they terrified that their livelihoods and communities are about to be ruined, or are they in fact okay with this Ottawa imposition and the impact it's going to have on their livelihoods?
I'll start with Mr. Dionne.