Well, there's interesting data. If we look at Europe, a certain number of European countries had very low participation rates. I'd mention particularly Finland, Belgium and France. Of course, as in Canada, at some time there was high unemployment, and governments even put in place some policies to push people out of the labour market. Of course, when you develop those policies, then people get used to them and, well, just consider that it's normal and that retirement is a great gift that they have to take.
What is interesting is that a lot of these countries have gone back, obviously, on these policies, because they don't have the same issues. The case of Finland is particularly interesting. It did a lot of, I guess you could say, publicity, promotion or putting out information against discrimination. Actually, in Quebec, at the moment I'm working with a group that has the same type of...not policy, but a program, or publicity, if you want. It is called la compétence n'a pas d'âge, or “You're competent at all ages”, and possibly even more as you grow older, in some cases.
The idea in Finland was really very interesting. Their participation rate had really gone down, and it came up again. France has a certain number of programs for seniors. However, I don't consider that they're doing very, very well. I think there's a lot of discrimination and ageism in French society. It's very difficult, unfortunately, for young people to get into the labour market in France. However, when you're pushed out of it, it's very difficult to get back in.
I think what is really important is to develop policies to get back into the labour market. Somebody was mentioning previously—I think it was Monsieur Perreault—the fiscal dimension. Clearly, in the surveys we have done—and eventually I can also give you access to these different surveys, particularly two very recent surveys we've just done in January and another one that is going to be coming out now—with employers and employees, retirees are not so interested. Half of them might be interested in coming back into the labour market, but they will be interested precisely under the conditions that I mentioned: flexibility in working hours, reduced working hours, eventually a four-day workweek, maybe not working all year long. For them, especially—