Good evening, everyone.
My name is Alexandre Tremblay and I am the chief executive officer of the Prévactions group, which includes the Webex digital agency and Prévactions, a firm specializing in occupational health and safety.
I would like to talk a bit about my career. I have always been in the military system. At the age of 12, I joined the cadets. At 16, I became a reservist in the Canadian Armed Forces, and I studied policing. I left the Canadian Armed Forces temporarily in about 2016, before rejoining the Régiment du Saguenay, where I continued my career until March 2022.
In civilian life, I was always attracted to policing. My father was a police officer and my brothers and uncles were soldiers, so this was something I was always interested in. It was important for me that this be part of my everyday life. At the same time, the army also helped me enormously.
In 2001, when I entered the army, I very much liked the values it instilled in us. It taught us to become leaders, because, basically, I think the first job of the Canadian Armed Forces is to train people to become good citizens. That is something I have always instilled. In 2006, I went to do my chef course, and from the end of 2006 to 2008, I worked full-time providing training at the Land Force Quebec Area Training Centre. At the time, it was called LFQA TC; now it is 2 Cdn Div TC, the 2nd Canadian Division Training Centre.
In 2008, I left the Canadian Armed Forces to become a police office with the Sûreté du Québec. I was transferred to Maniwaki. At that time, I was in the Supplementary Reserve, because I still missed it a bit. Being a soldier provides a feeling of pride and offers a lot in personal terms.
Then, in 2013, I left the police and started a career in occupational health and safety prevention. I have had a lot of problems and Mr. Davis is entirely correct in saying that it is extremely difficult to have the skills and training acquired in the military recognized in civilian life. So I had to do a lot of things over and take a lot of courses over at university. There were times when I could have given up, but I kept working toward my goal.
In 2016, I started wanting to become an entrepreneur. When I returned to the Régiment du Saguenay as a reservist, I went to finish my sergeant's course, and then my corporal's course, and so I became an infantry warrant officer in 2019.
Starting in 2019, the COVID‑19 pandemic hit. I was transferred to the Territorial Battalion Group to participate in the operation carried out in seniors' residences, as a deputy commander of an infantry platoon.
On the entrepreneurial front, all the experience I had amassed in the army helped me enormously in becoming an entrepreneur. I think that people could easily be helped to develop as entrepreneurs in the Canadian Armed Forces, because the qualities and training we acquire in the army, in themselves, enable us to become good entrepreneurs. I know people who are doing well in the business world.
I launched my businesses in 2020 after my time in the territorial battalion group. I now have three businesses, including Michel Larouche Consultants RH inc. At the provincial level, with Prévactions, I have many clients outside of Quebec. We currently have about 21 employees.
I see that I've run out of time.