As part of the consolidation, we know that, for all kinds of reasons, the forest sector in Québec did not produce as much as expected. So there have been reforms to reduce wood volumes. We've taken part in all kinds of ways to consolidate this industry. If we wanted to retain the young labor force, we needed to enable older workers to leave the industry, and we requested a program for older workers. It's all well and good to have an initiative to enable workers to retrain at the age of 55, but when an individual has been working at a sawmill for 30 years, as a region, it's hard to think about retraining that individual. I have friends in the Outaouais who have enrolled in the program. There are eight individuals in the program. There was available money, but people weren't registered. So the former POWA program would have given us a real hand in retaining the young labour force. We currently have plants that have managed to finance themselves out of workers' pay. Either they have contributed more to the pension fund or they've cut their vacation pay to enable people to retire. Why? To retain the youngest workers because tomorrow, in two, three or five years, we won't conceal the fact that they'll be leaving plants by the hundreds. So people 52, 53, 54 years of age are in the plants and aren't eligible for retirement. Within five years, if we can't save this because no one is registered for training, we'll have a serious problem in our communities. That's all across Quebec and particularly in Lac-Saint-Jean. We were talking about AbitibiBowater; we have 20 days left to resolve that issue.
On March 12th, 2009. See this statement in context.