Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My thanks to our two guests for joining us today to help us with our study. I feel that it is really timely and important. My questions go to both of you.
In 2008, before I had been elected to the House, I visited a garment factory in my constituency that made jackets for Moores. The factory was soon going to close because, at the time, the federal government was not applying the measures developed by the World Trade Organization for the protection of manufacturing sectors, including the textile industry. In the factory, I saw workers 50 and 60 years old who had spent their whole lives making pants and jackets.
They knew how to do that very well, but they did not have the qualifications to do anything else. The men and women I met were not only anxious, they were also a little disillusioned and despairing by virtue of what they had to look forward to. Their pension was not enough and they were not old enough to qualify for the old age pension. They did not have the qualifications they needed in order to be able to return to the workforce. In your view, what should the federal government do in cases like that?
The story of the people in that factory is the same story we have seen all over Canada since the collapse of the manufacturing sector. Hundreds of thousands of people who have devoted their lives to make a factory or a company a success have been forced into unemployment. They have no prospects, except for exclusion and poverty. What should the federal government be doing to stand with those workers?