They will have to dispose of their goods, give them away or do whatever they can. They will no longer have access.
It's important to understand that we have a customs administration and, given our circumstances, we do not want it to be a wall. Thus far, it has been a means of trade and exchange, a benefit—because we have two cultures and two economies.
But now we will be creating a dead end in my community. And that is just one example.
The second example relates to tourism. As you know, people get involved in all kinds of little activities. There are bed & breakfast inns, vineyards, major interpretation centres, a small general store and all kinds of small businesses of that nature. If a large business here in Ottawa sees its sales drop by $5,000, it will still have sales of $150,000. But in our area, if a business normally has sales of $30,000, and that amount drops by $5,000, that means the owner will either have to sell his business or look for work outside the region in order to survive. That's the kind of impact this will have on our small communities. People do all kinds of things in order to make a living.
Most of the people in my community earn about $12 or $15 an hour. Many are also earning minimum wage. That is the lifestyle they have chosen and they accept what goes along with that. On the other hand, it's not right to take even more away from them. We have to keep everything we have now, because we need it.
When I saw that number—$300,000—I said to myself that we would lose jobs, that businesses would shut down and that we'd have to turn around and ask for government subsidies in order to save our farmers and our small businesses. But we don't need government subsidies; we can manage on our own. It isn't easy. We work 60 or 70 hours a week for peanuts, but we earn that money ourselves and we're proud of it. Even though I'm appearing today as a politician, I'm a wage earner.
Why rob Peter to pay Paul? That's what I don't understand.