Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for the information they gave and their perspective.
Mr. Roberts, you mentioned some very interesting points of view, including on severance pay, which is considered income by employment insurance. I think we should, indeed, see if we can't make changes to that.
We know that the manufacturing sector in Canada has been bled dry and completely emptied in the past few years. A few years ago, in my riding, I visited a textile plant that was about to close, where people had worked for 20, 25 or 30 years. For their entire lives, these people had made pants and jackets, and they were going to lose their jobs. In some cases, theses people were 55 or 60 years of age and had no means for their retirement. They had to return to the job market to try to find a new job when they had done the same job all their lives. A new textile plant is probably not going to open up in Montreal.
What should the federal government do to help those workers who have to find a new job after having done a manual job their entire lives, using machines, but who have no other training or skills?