Good evening. My name is Joseph‑Pierre Dufour.
After 40 years of development, our current structure, which utilizes renewable forest resources, now uses 100% of the material. Although we are dependent on a single resource, its value is applied in a variety of economic sectors.
If you're already familiar with the Sacré‑Coeur complex, you'll know that in addition to the Boisaco plant, which produces lumber, it also includes the Sacopan plant, which uses the shavings to produce door panels, Granulco, which uses them to design pellets, and Ripco, which transforms wood shavings into equestrian bedding. To ensure that nothing goes to waste, our thermal power plants and boiler rooms burn the bark for our heat-intensive processes and, finally, send the ash to local farmers. I believe our complex is an exemplary model, supported by the local community and based on a vision of sustainable development.
The proposed emergency order jeopardizes over 600 direct jobs, hundreds of indirect jobs, contractors and businesses. Many families would be affected by the disappearance of the region's only economic engine. With a population of 5,000 spread over four municipalities, it's obvious that this would be catastrophic for the Haute‑Côte‑Nord and would also have negative repercussions for the Saguenay and Charlevoix regions.
Let's face it, we're not going to reinvent the Haute‑Côte‑Nord economy overnight. We're not in a major centre, but in a relatively isolated and remote region, where interesting jobs in our respective trades are hundreds of kilometres away. What's most likely to happen if worse comes to worst is that many families will leave for other regions, because here, there won't really be any jobs left to support them.
Thank you.