We visited every region of Quebec affected by this bill, Mr. Bouchard—the person I love to refer to as the « father » of the bill. We heard the same arguments in every one of the regions. Young people are leaving. There are very few, if any, opportunities to find employment, because there is no market. Also, the unemployment rate is very high. There have been a number of attempts to try and set up secondary and tertiary processing plants, but it's kind of a vicious circle: if we cannot keep young people in the regions and give them jobs, unfortunately, they have to leave their home area to settle in one of the larger centres.
On November 25th, 2009. See this statement in context.