Thank you for the question.
I appreciate your engagement and Monsieur Simard's engagement in support of our sector. It's definitely a difficult time. It's very tough to now recruit people into a sector when people are wondering if the mill is still going to be there in a couple of months. There's no doubt about that. That said, I have hope in two areas.
One, what we've been talking to the government about is that the best result for our youth, for our industry and for our forest-dependent communities is to get a deal at the negotiating table that works with the United States as soon as we can—not a bad deal but the best deal as soon as we can. We get that it's complex, but what we're hearing for our sector is that it's not close right now. What we need to do is protect our employees, to bridge us to try to get through this. That's the priority right now in terms of supporting young people.
I'd also say that the initial package the government.... We're probably in the range of 1,000 to 2,000 across the country in terms of layoffs or curtailments right now. The $50 million as part of the response package is designed to support about 6,000 displaced workers. What we're working on with Unifor Québec, the steelworkers and others is the next step. If this drags on further and if the employment impact is beyond 6,000, we need a response package to protect those families and those workers.
It's a two-part issue. We have a natural challenge. It's tough to recruit now, but I think we just need to work with the government to try to get the supports in place to keep as many people connected to the mills for as long as possible.