I will bring it back in a few minutes. The relevance is there.
I was explaining that training is extremely important. In the various trades, requirements are so high. For a pipeline welder, every welded joint is X-rayed. If he misses three, he loses his qualification. That's what I'm trying to tell you.
This is a widespread model in Canada. When an X-ray of a welded joint shows that a welder missed something, not only does the welder have to redo the joint, but he also gets a ticket. After three failures, like demerit points for driving, he loses his licence.
In Quebec and Canada, there are point systems for licences. They just need to be organized and enforced. Road inspectors are asking us to do this. It could be among the committee's recommendations. Mr. Barsalou‑Duval may say that such recommendations go too far, but I am somewhat tempted to go there. The main motion we're debating aims to find solutions and conclude this study, then make recommendations. I want to tell the provinces to get involved in training and to go straight to where it hurts, which is demerit points, as with welders. When you get a ticket, you lose the opportunity to do your job.
Driving is a privilege. I told my daughter so. My daughter got her first driver's licence and her first car. This is her first winter driving. The first thing I told her was that driving is a privilege. I told her she had to pay close attention to her lessons, pass her tests, follow the rules, deal with bad weather and, above all, deal with reckless drivers. I had to tell her that she would have to face incompetent big truck drivers because she would be driving on Highway 50 every day. So my daughter is learning to drive on Highway 50. You can't prevent a child from expressing themselves or growing up because you live in a rural area. So I have to live with the consequences of my daughter facing trucks every day. So if I don't care about bereaved families and this committee, I'm in the wrong place. I wouldn't want my daughter to be in that situation. I wouldn't want anyone's child to be in that situation. I wouldn't want responsible parents to have their child's death on their conscience because they gave them the opportunity to drive at 17 and they had an accident because of a driver involved in the Driver Inc. scheme. I want this to be resolved.
That's why I'm making the link with welding. I'm just as passionate about qualification certificates to work on pipelines. I taught high-pressure welding for pipeline work for 21 years. I always told my students that welding certification was a privilege. The same goes for drivers, like the ones we heard from during this study. Those drivers made the effort to get good training, gain experience and learn how to drive well. They work for responsible companies and don't deserve unfair competition from other drivers. It could affect a family member. Now, in connection with the federal government's broader objectives, we must work together to fight the Driver Inc. model and protect workers' fundamental rights.
Very little has been said about Quebec's Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail and its equivalent occupational health and safety bodies in other provinces. This truly is an occupational health and safety issue. We must consider drivers' health, including their mental health. We must also consider their families. When a spouse drives a truck longer than the allowed maximum number of hours, their family is worried. It's holding the drivers hostage. They don't talk about it, because they're under pressure.
We can resolve this together. We can achieve our goals. We can ensure healthy and fair competition if we want to. We can also improve road safety indirectly. Road traffic controllers and provincial government representatives are asking for collaboration, standardized rules and information sharing. It's not just a matter of making lists and publishing them. What they want, and what the majority of the population wants, is for everyone to work together to come up with a solution to the Driver Inc. problem.
You know, Driver Inc. is not a fringe phenomenon. I must tell you that it's a real threat. I rarely talk about my concerns and my family, but every time I see Jade leaving on Highway 50, I feel a knot in my stomach that I shouldn't have, for many reasons. We can go back to the design of the highway. We could say it's a trucking route or it's because of reflection. If we went way back, we could say that it was because the Quebec government ran out of money, so it settled on fewer lanes and built a single road with adjacent lanes running in both directions. These days, they're improvising with temporary barriers and trying to put markers down the middle of the road. Every day, cars collide with the dividing markers. I have all kinds of reasons to be concerned. However, I wanted to convey to you today how important it is for me to resolve this matter, and to make it clear that I am not speaking lightly.
Thousands of trucks a year use our highways. I often mention Highway 50, but you all have a highway used by trucks in your riding. Wherever there are trucks, whether at ports or in large cities where truckers have to operate in very limited spaces to make deliveries, people are at risk. We need skilled drivers, with proper training, who receive fair and equitable wages from companies.
Please, it would be much better if these issues were not exploited for political and partisan purposes through the feelings of a bereaved family. Today, we have an opportunity to correct a significant flaw. I know there's not much time left, but I want to say one more thing before I leave. If we absolutely want to come back to work together and settle this matter, I ask you, if possible, to accept the following solution. I propose that we hold two and a half meetings, two of which are related to the list of witnesses we have. Then I propose that we hold a half meeting to hear from the bereaved family, and each of us in turn can offer them our condolences. We will have the opportunity to talk to them, to look them in the eye and to offer them our condolences. We will have the opportunity to tell them that we are working on the issue. I will never tell them that it is the Bloc Québécois' fault for telling lies, and so on. This is not the time to play politics. It's time to grieve with the families, but it must be done in camera.
It's also important to remove the request for disclosure of communications concerning the trucking sector. No such request should be made to the government.
Now, we absolutely must adopt this motion in earnest and address the study on ports, which would be of great benefit to us. Together, we have a chance to achieve a strong “win-win-win” outcome for the Port of Montreal and Contrecoeur projects. They represent hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of jobs. There are thousands of jobs in your community, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval. It is a viable and profitable project. It is for the good of the organizations, the community, and the businesses in your community, Mr. Barsalou‑Duval. It would be extremely profitable to move forward and address this study so that we can look at—