Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I have a preliminary comment to make concerning temporary foreign workers. I found my colleague Mr. Simard's comments very interesting. Still, we must be careful when we adopt measures. I don't think we can pass legislation that is the same for every Canadian province. We have other concerns, particularly in Quebec where we must keep our workers. That was just a preliminary comment.
I am obviously very concerned by the job losses in the manufacturing sector. We can see that our economy is destructuring. In Quebec, we have lost 135,000 jobs since 2002. There is also the issue of gas prices, which clearly has an effect on the transportation of goods, including your markets. There is also the issue of the rising dollar. I think that will indeed have an effect on tourism. You can be certain that there will be an impact on your sectors of activity.
In Trois-Rivières, for example, there were big companies—paper mills among others—offering average salaries of $70,000 a year. Those jobs were replaced by call centre jobs at minimum wage. The level of employment is unchanged, but the fact remains that we clearly do not have the same consumers of goods and services.
Are you planning any particular steps to help retailers, shopkeepers, to face the coming crisis, particularly if there is a recession next year?