Madam Speaker, the question is a very relevant one. Indeed, Sainte-Rita is a lovely little municipality in my riding.
At the moment, this is happening in a number of communities. Last fall, people were laid off in mid November, about a month before the usual layoff date. The effect of this was to cut significantly into the number of presents for children at Christmas.
Back home, two of the four RCMs in the region are among the poorest in Quebec. One of the effects is to push people at that point to not have any more income and to seek social assistance, in the end. In the meantime, when a person ends up in the gap any money set aside has to be spent first. They can own a house worth only a certain amount to be entitled to social assistance. This state of affairs reduces the overall economy of the region.
In closing, I believe that in this small municipality the loss of three, four, five or fifty jobs is pretty significant. It calls the vitality of the municipality into question. I think specific solutions are called for. It is time to move out of macroeconomics and look at the significant human impact. At the moment, the federal government is not meeting this challenge satisfactorily.