Good morning. My name is Gérald Lemoyne and I am the mayor of the town of Lebel-sur-Quévillon, a one-industry forestry town that has been hit by the forestry crisis. This morning, I will tell you what it means, in real life, to live through a crisis like the one that has hit us.
First, I will give you some background. Lebel-sur-Quévillon is what is called an isolated single-industry town: our nearest neighbours are over 100 km away. It is a town that was created with the construction of a pulp and paper plant in 1966. The road was built, the town was built, the plant was built, and the town has lived with the ups and downs of the forest industry all these years. There is also a sawmill nearby that was built in 1975. In the late 1960s, another sawmill, that belonged to another company and is now owned by AbitibiBowater, was opened about 15 km away. The workers live in our town, in Lebel-sur-Quévillon. So it is a community with close ties to the forest industry. Until 2005, it was a town where wages and household incomes were among the highest in Canada.
In 2005 we learned, from the media, that Domtar had just announced that it was shutting down its plants, the sawmill and the pulp and paper plant. It was done in a single blow, with no prior announcement, with no other discussion. It meant the loss of 700 jobs in an isolated community. This all happened almost five years ago, at the end of November. When this kind of thing happens, it is a disaster. It is an economic disaster, but it is first and foremost a human disaster.
Imagine that you are a worker thinking about retiring, who believes your children are going to be able to work in the same place as you. This kind of thing happens and not only have you lost your job, but your house is automatically devalued. So this is all going around you.
The local economy, which depends on forestry, has also suffered a heavy blow, and there are problems associated with all that too. In a community like ours, when these things happen, we are concerned about the social problems that may result.
That was the background. Because I have only five minutes, I will try to be brief.
This morning, we are here to tell you what the federal government should be doing. We are the ones who are suffering the consequences of these closings, and we certainly do not think that what the federal government is doing is sufficient. There are priorities that have to be set, including assistance for individuals, the people of Lebel-sur-Quévillon.
Let me tell you about my own case. I am a plant worker; I am not a mayor who earns an honourable living from being mayor. I paid into employment insurance for 40 years, but when I lost my job, I was not entitled to a single day of employment insurance. Assistance for individuals is certainly a priority in cases like these, along with assistance to the community, assistance in recovery and diversification, and although this aspect is often ignored, support. The senior governments should support us in finding solutions. There is also financial support for our projects. There are ways to avoid disasters happening, ways of preventing them. In the pulp and paper industry and the forest industry, for example, there are research and development, reducing the costs of fibre and other costs, and integrating lumber, paper and energy. There has to be encouragement for integrating these activities.
When we talk about integrating activities, we aren't necessarily talking about merging two plants into one; that's not what we're talking about at all. We're talking about converting plants for the production of products that may have a better future and promoting wood construction. That is also an important aspect. In Quebec, in Canada, we have forests, a forest industry that was one of the jewels of our economy, and one way to get the industry going again is certainly to promote wood construction.
That is all for now.