Thank you very much.
This is the fourth time I've appeared before various committees to say what the industry thinks about all this. I hope it will be the last. This morning, I'm not here to represent just the Quebec Forest Industry Council. I also have a motion to introduce from 14 groups, including the two major municipal unions of Quebec, the forestry cooperatives, foresters, sylvicultural workers, the Quebec wildlife people and the controlled harvesting zone suppliers. I also represent the independent truckers. This is a common front requesting that you take action as the Parliament of Canada. The motion is also intended for Canadian parliamentarians, in the hope that they will rise above political allegiances and pass it.
From the outset, I will say that Minister Béchard was supposed to communicate with Ms. Raitt yesterday evening to make the same kind of proposal to her as we will be making to you this morning.
At this stage, with the votes that have been held, there is a lot of room for developments within the budget. We find it inconceivable that no one can identify a specific budget envelope for the forest industry, instead of scattering aid and credit access all around. One minister even told me there was $1 billion for access to credit. Well, gather $2 or $3 billion together and allocate it specifically to the forest industry. A very specific envelope should be established with a very specific access channel, a kind of window.
We are fighting for our survival. What Avrim Lazar told you earlier was good. You've done good things, but it's the ones that come out of the coma or crisis that will be able to take advantage. Your $170 million budget is intended for marketing. We don't currently need marketing. It's a nice effort, but why get involved in marketing right now? If we can't survive, we don't need marketing. We are simply in a state of distress, and that's not being understood. We want to lend you a hand so that you can gather the money together.
In my meeting with Minister Stockwell Day, I found an opening in that regard. We explained to him that there was a host of credit opportunities, but that nothing had been identified for forestry, whereas on the automotive side... We're not jealous of the automotive sector. On the contrary. We're proud for them. But why not have a single window? The crisis is just as big, even more so, than that in the automotive sector, since it affects 825,000 workers, compared to 500,000 workers. It seems to me you have to make an effort to be coherent, an effort to use common sense. Based on the motion you passed by a majority in the House yesterday, you must be able to suggest that $2 or $2.5 billion should be taken from the total of $20 billion in credit, to identify a specific budget envelope for the forestry sector and create a single channel, without there being any overlap with the provinces. Do something that makes sense and we'll support you. We're not here to condemn, but rather to ask you for things. That's our right; that's our role. If you grant that, we'll be here to congratulate you.
The Quebec government heard us. We met with Minister Béchard on Tuesday afternoon. We did our duty. I regret that the motion we're presenting to you has not been translated into English, but I asked the chairman for permission to distribute it to committee members. If I am not entitled to do that, I will distribute it to you later. I suppose it would be interesting to see all the groups who have supported this request this morning, which is also a defence of the proposal by Quebec's Minister of Natural Resources. I believe that all your successful efforts, all the research aspects, for example, will be useless because, fundamentally, that's not what we're asking for. What we're asking you for is to survive. Programs are all well and good; we don't deny their purpose, but there is a time for that.
If you ask me whether it's a good idea to do marketing, I'll say yes, but I'm going to use it if I get out of intensive care, if I get out of palliative care. However, the illness is coming to its crisis, to the terminal phase. If you don't understand that, you're disconnected from reality.
The automotive sector is lucky to be concentrated in three cities. I understand that the major population concentrations are politically profitable. In Quebec, for example, 264 towns and villages don't carry very much demographic or political weight. However, these are men and women who live off a regional economy and who are entitled to expect that their government will look beyond high population concentrations and big cities. They want distributive justice, and that's what I'm asking you for.
Thank you.