Thank you, Chair.
Thank you very much to our witnesses here today.
Mr. Garneau said he was surprised there were so many women who were working in the industry—the number of women—but the percentage of women should not be surprising because sewing is involved, and I'm sure that when the garment industry was strong in Montreal, there were a lot of women who would have been sewers at that time.
I know that in the furniture business, especially with fabric-covered furniture, women usually sew and men do the heavier work, the upholstering and the frame construction.
Education in some of these countries is quite the thing. Lots of times women don't get the same education as men. In the garment industry it's repetitive. It requires a great skill in sewing or cutting fabric. Women excel at those particular things.
Buyers work lots of times at fashion shows or in a marketplace. Maybe now they go on site a little bit more, but lots of times they will probably buy that product, because they like the line and can get it for a certain price. Those will happen.
The garment industry again has less investment. That's why it's in Bangladesh, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Vietnam. It takes a smaller investment for sewing machines, sergers, cutting tables, scissors, and those types of things. The biggest thing is probably the buildings.
I know in Bangladesh a number of years ago one of our Canadian companies, Gildan, bought a factory. I think it was a working factory, but when they looked at it, they found there were no fire escapes and there was no elevator. It was a five-storey building. Also, when they looked at the building they didn't think it was built strong enough. It's my understanding they spent approximately $1 million—in Bangladesh $1 million is quite a bit of money—to upgrade to, to put in an elevator for safety. The people were walking the stairs, carrying cuttings from top to bottom.
In that instance, would Gildan have come to you? Or would they have gone and had someone say that you had to do this? It's my understanding they took it upon themselves to do this. Would I be correct?