Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, members of the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans. I represent the Bonaventure RCM and will be speaking to you today about the situation in the region since fishing quotas were cut, something which is causing great concern among residents.
I am the mayor of a municipality by the name of Saint-Godefroi in the Baie des Chaleurs. For many years now, we have had the sense that we are always on the receiving end of news announced suddenly and bluntly—bad news like cuts to the crab fishing quotas. The two gentlemen that came before me pretty well summarized the situation residents are facing.
Mr. Scantland talked about insecurity; I would like to talk about uncertainty. People are leaving the Gaspé region in droves—particularly young people—to find work. In the past, people talked about going to work in the large urban centres, like Montréal and Quebec City. Now people are leaving the province to go and work in Alberta and Manitoba.
That worries residents, because it results in a significant loss of income for crabbers. Furthermore, dock hands and plant workers who only worked four or five weeks before now find themselves reduced to only two weeks of work. There has been a return to what I experienced when I was 16 years old, what were called at the time “odd jobs”. Nothing has changed in all those years, not to mention the economic losses in Gaspésie and throughout the region that you will be visiting in the coming days.
Furthermore, this has had a considerable impact on the health of residents of the Gaspé region. The reason I know is that, for several years, I was the manager of a centre that treats drug addicts. The job losses, the uncertainty and the insecurity all affect people's health.
Friends, drug addiction in Gaspésie is more and more common as a result of these job losses and sudden drops in income from one day to the next. I do not understand why the experts in government cannot predict what is going to befall us today, tomorrow or in future years. I beg you, members of Parliament and ministers alike, to do all you can to ensure that people have some inkling of what could occur in the next few years.
In terms of problems in the fishery—Mr. Cousineau talked about some of them—we have experienced the same difficulties in the groundfish fishery. At the time, I was with the CSN and we discussed the issue at length. We tried to find solutions. After the cod fishery, now it is the crab fishery's turn.
So, I think it is plausible that your experts are well positioned and well enough paid to be able to predict what is going to hit us in the coming years. It is not only the Bonaventure RCM; the entire population is raising the alarm, asking that you answer its call.
The people behind us who are listening to the discussion have lost income. Sometimes they find themselves living below the poverty line. That is not the case for the majority, but it is for a pretty large segment of the population.
I can imagine what it is like to be in the position of the people who represent us. I do not want to be mean, but it seems to me that they live in a completely different world. When they are seated comfortably at their desks, they cannot possibly imagine what people who earn only $12,000 a year are going through.
Ladies and gentlemen, I will conclude my presentation by once again urging you to plan, and to think about the people living in poverty, who are encountering these problems on a daily basis, and who get up every morning wondering whether they will still be working tomorrow, and whether they will be able to allow themselves a little luxury and regain their physical and psychological health.
Thank you.