Ms. Oehling, you said something I found somewhat scandalous. You said that seasonal workers should retrain and even, from what I understood, relocate. I don't know if you saw the special television program on China on one of the French-speaking television station this week. I find it difficult to reconcile a situation whereby both a father and a mother—or indeed either of the two—has to work away from home. Children are left up to their own devices. This is what happens. We can't just look at things through an urban lens. There is an entire rural world out there too. And what of the family unit. Not everybody is going to drop everything and go elsewhere for a year or two. You must not forget that some seasonal workers work in the cultural and tourism industries. Their seasonal work is tourism. In my riding, there is the Festival of Colours which ends in October.
Why should these specialists who have studied, and who are experts in their field, be forced to go back to school and relocate? Because they are seasonal workers, or to make EI program administrators happy? So I was a bit shocked by that. There is a municipality in my riding which has 112 residents and is located two and a quarter hours from my home. They are entitled to live there. We cannot strip the rural area bare just to suit the urban regions.
How can you develop skills when you uproot them?