Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and hon. members.
My name is Mathieu Lavigne, and I am the vice-president of public and economic affairs at the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec. With me today is my colleague, Hubert Rioux. I will give a brief introduction and then I will give the floor to Mr. Rioux, who will get into the substance of our presentation.
To summarize, the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec brings together Quebec's 120 local chambers of commerce and acts as Quebec's national or provincial chamber. It has 1,000 members companies and represents a total of 40,000 businesses of all sizes and from across all sectors and regions of Quebec. Many businesses are directly affected by the subject of today's consultation.
Now that I have explained who we are, I will let my colleague present our arguments on the issue.