We really represent small businesses. In Quebec, that's how things are done. These are small sub-contractors, who harvest using one, two or three machines, compared to the big companies. There are about 1,300 in Quebec and just about all of us operate this way.
We are harvesting specialists. We're beginning to need new qualified employees, but it's extremely hard to find any. Since we've had a very tight budget for several years, we cannot afford to hire someone young who is just beginning. He's fresh out of school, he's good, but he needs another year or year and a half before he has a level of skill comparable to that of the other workers. It has to be said that our flexibility depends directly on our employees. We work in the forest with our employees, on whom we depend directly. When we can rely on experienced employees, the company does well overall.
In view of our narrow profit margins, when we hire someone young, we automatically go from small profits to instant losses. The students have good training, but they lack experience. They have to work with us for another 1,000 or 1,500 hours before becoming operators, at the rate at which things are going now in the forestry sector.