Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I also want to thank our witnesses for joining us this morning. Their testimony has been highly informative and will help us a great deal to prepare our report.
I'd like to focus first on the mining sector. I grew up in Abitibi, a mining region, in a family of mine workers. There's one aspect of this job that you haven't touched on and I have to wonder why that is so. Mining is physically demanding work.
We hear a lot of talk about qualifications. People must be trained in order to work in the mines. A rather startling fact is that half of mine workers are between the ages of 40 and 54. Therefore, we're dealing with an older workforce that may not be so easy to replace.
Mining presents some physical demands. Furthermore, many mines use archaic equipment. For instance, some mining operations still use jack hammers, which can be very hard on a person's back. It's quite an achievement if a miner working underground manages to reach the age of fifty. Moreover, the accident and mortality rate is among the highest for mine workers. This reality needs to be acknowledged.
In your opinion, are the physical demands of mining a contributing factor to the shortage of workers of this sector? If so, what steps are being considered to mitigate these demands in order to attract young people to the mining profession? A mine can only operate if the ore can be extracted. Extracting ore is the most important job in the mining sector, in my estimation.