Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the committee for allowing me to come to committee this morning.
It's obviously incredibly near and dear to my heart and incredibly concerning, Mr. Chair, because this is my own backyard. I represent an excellent riding called Essex, and that butts right up to Windsor, where the Stellantis plant is going to be.
There is one good thing about Air Canada being late, and it's that we get more time to spend on our phones with folks—at least I do. Last night I spoke to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. I also spoke with the carpenters union. They said nothing less than that these are jobs that are going to be stolen from the very fingertips of Canadians.
Now we have potentially $50 billion on the laps of each and every one of us around this table that is basically unaccounted for. We need to understand. We need to know exactly what the numbers are.
This is only about good-paying, skilled trades jobs, both unionized and non-unionized jobs. That's what it's about.
I was told last night that there are a few folks that need to come in for the programming of the computers, but the rest of this work has already been duplicated time and time again in other portions of the automotive industry, an industry that's been absolutely decimated due to COVID, an industry that drives southwestern Ontario—not only Windsor but certainly Windsor—an industry that works very closely with our counterparts in Michigan and downriver Michigan.
To suggest for a moment that we don't open the books on this and really find out how many folks are coming here to take away good-paying Canadian jobs.... That's the question. Anything shy of that answer is not doing justice to our skilled trades jobs.
When I reflect back on it, it's not only the battery plant itself. It's the tier twos and the tier threes that are going to be affected—the same ones that have already been affected and couldn't get folks across the border on the shop floors. They had to put all the investment into this new material, this new technology, to play the game. They deserve it. They deserve the answers. The workers deserve the answers. The unions deserve the answers, and the folks of Windsor-Essex deserve the answers.
I think it would be the world's biggest mistake if we did not look at the $50-billion investment into this.
I'll take it one last step, Mr. Chair. It's as simple as this: It's each and every family, every Canadian family, that is trying to feed the mouths of their children. If it's $1,000 a family, or it's $3,000 a family, whatever the number is, they deserve to know as well.
I would strongly ask that this committee take a really hard look at this and take a hard look in the mirror, because you're affecting a whole bunch of people's lives and a whole bunch of businesses.
Thanks, Chair.