Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Greetings to all witnesses, and thank you for being here.
I find it pathetic to hear my Liberal colleague Mr. McCallum talk about the scope of the crisis in order to justify the fact that the Liberals are voting for such a budget. They are supporting a Conservative budget that has no measure to solve the problem that you have raised. On the contrary, the Bloc Québécois feels that the lack of any such measure to solve these problems isn't enough to vote against such a budget.
Mr. Chevrette, I find your testimony even more pathetic. You spoke about the forestry industry in Quebec, which has been in dire straits since 2005. It's not a recent problem. You stated that under the softwood lumber agreement, there are no constraints on loan guarantees. Even the Quebec government offered loan guarantees through Investissement Québec, but the Conservative ministers Paradis and Lebel are telling us that if they did this, it would paralyze the entire forestry industry.
When Investissement Québec granted loan guarantees in Quebec, did this cause problems? Why isn't the Conservative government doing the same thing? Can you give us other reasons, aside from simply saying that it's not possible?