Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would also like to thank you for appearing before us this afternoon. I must tell you that the discussions you have raised are interesting. I am in my second term as a Member of Parliament. We just began to work on the whole issue of employability a few months ago. There has been an increasingly strange perception. Apparently some people in this country thought that in the Maritimes, in the Atlantic provinces — I am from New Brunswick — there was no problem finding employees, as if there were too many employees for the number of jobs available. I think it is more the opposite that is happening. In any case, I am pleased to hear you talk about that.
At a Human Resources Committee meeting a few months ago, I remember, a member from the government side said that the federal government should introduce financial initiatives to encourage people in the Atlantic provinces to go to Alberta. I think that would only take the problem and move it, which would produce even more problems. I’m glad the member is not among us today, because he certainly would have grimaced. Be that as it may, he will know that I said it again.
Ms. Bourgeois, when you said that, in future, there will be nearly 12,000 jobs in New Brunswick, clearly that is important for workers, if we count people who have the opportunity to work.
You mentioned the issue of discrimination, Ms. Bourgeois. I think Ms. Danica or Ms. Keddy said that discrimination should not exist, but it still exists. It would be sticking our heads in the sand like an ostrich to say that there should not be discrimination because it's against the law. Everybody does it, but no one says so. I think that is the problem. It's true that a woman who is of child-bearing age may be a victim of discrimination. That is also the case for young people who don’t have enough experience and older people who may no longer have the physical capabilities some employers are looking for. But some day employers will have to understand that each one can contribute something positive to a business, whether it is a woman, a young person or an older person. Each and every one can contribute something positive.
You are from New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, Ms. Bourgeois; you represent the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. When you did your assessment, your studies, did you take seasonal workers into consideration, among the 12,000 jobs in New Brunswick and maybe in the other Maritime regions? If so, what risk — and I would encourage anyone who wants to answer my question — would be associated with retraining those workers for a permanent job that does not currently exist? What happens the next year, the next season? What is done to fill the job that was held by a seasonal worker? The reality is that there are still people in this country who forget or do not know that fish is not caught in Toronto, that a two-by-four does not come from a sawmill in downtown Montreal, and I could go on. We have to convey this message, repeat it over and over again. A study was done in a Toronto school in which children were asked where pumpkins came from. The young people answered they came from Loblaws. So there is a lack of understanding of the Canadian, the pan-Canadian reality, from one end of the country to the other. In rural areas, we may be a bit slow to understand the whole country but it is an everyday reality.
I am going to stop talking because the Chairman is going to tell me the time available to me has run out. I am going to let you answer my questions, please.