Those 750 positions at the CBC are also worrisome, quite worrisome. A Franco-Ontarian colleague who is here knows that this attack on the French section of the CBC will reduce the flow of information which is supposed to reach francophones outside Quebec, and I suppose that he is rather concerned about the government's decision, although the heritage minister is not. I would imagine that the government could function without the heritage minister.
Therefore, we could say that there are lots and lots of cuts. Cuts in the semi-public sector. I mentioned the Canadian National, we can see what is happening now. The rail strike was prepared jointly by companies, with the complicity of government, and this was very clear yesterday in the presentation of Paul Tellier. He said that he believed that people were making too much money, and that salaries and work conditions would have to be lowered; not his though. He is a wise man. He knows that charity begins at home.
They want to privatize, to reduce the number of jobs, the way they did it at the Angus yard, not far from my riding. At one time it had 8,000 employees. It is closed now, completely closed. People were promised the best job security plan, but today the railways are reneging on this promise.
These are major job losses at the Canadian National, major job losses at the CBC. If we add it all up, we are talking about 6,500 jobs that will be lost in the Montreal area within two years. I recall the excellent document prepared by the present Minister of Finance, when his party was in opposition, which proposed a strategic plan for Montreal. It received very good coverage in the press. There were two or three very good articles about it.