Good afternoon, everyone.
My name is Stéphane Bisson, and I am president of the Gatineau Chamber of Commerce.
Thank you for inviting me to appear.
I would first like to specify, for those who don't know, that Gatineau is right on the other side of the river; it is the national capital's forgotten village.
During the protests in support of the freedom convoy, downtown Gatineau was literally taken hostage by sympathizers. You will remember that Ottawa's public safety officials had blocked the bridges. Only two bridges ultimately remained open to traffic: the Champlain Bridge, located westward, and the interprovincial bridge, where significant traffic jams occurred. So sympathizers arriving from the Quebec side to see the convoy would park in downtown Gatineau. They simply took the downtown area hostage.
When the convoy arrived downtown, businesses had just reopened, including restaurants and anything related to tourism. Hundreds and thousands of individuals started waving flags, drinking and urinating in public. That combination did not make restaurants very attractive to people. As a result, a great many reservations were cancelled. All merchants in downtown Gatineau suffered incredible losses, in addition to serious harm, as people came to their businesses refusing to follow health measures. That is one of the problems that arose.
I also want to highlight the absence of public servants in downtown Gatineau. Some 50,000 of them work in office buildings. So their absence represents significant losses for businesses in downtown Gatineau. I wanted to remind you of that in the context of the committee's study.
Thank you.