Mr. Speaker, I wanted to take part in this debate today and to congratulate my hon. colleague from Trois-Rivières on having raised this important matter: the crisis in the manufacturing and forestry sectors. I must also thank my colleague from Beauharnois—Salaberry for agreeing to share her speaking time with me.
In her riding, as in many others in Quebec of course,—and one might include Ontario and the Maritimes as well—many MPs are involved daily with the crisis in the manufacturing and forestry sectors. This is, therefore, an important issue for our regions. Thinking of the manufacturing sector alone, this represents 536,000 jobs. It is no trifling matter.
The situation is a paradox, given today's context. The present vitality of the Canadian dollar bears witness to Canada's overall economic health. Looked at through a distorting lens or rose coloured glasses, as is the Conservative government's wont, the Canadian economy is seen to be doing well. That is what we are constantly being told by the Minister of Finance during question period, when we raise the difficulties certain sectors are experiencing.
In fact, his response that everything is doing well is because of the Alberta oil boom. That is all very fine for them, anyway, and far be it from us to say that the people of Alberta are not entitled to a healthy economy. On the contrary, we are very happy for them. Other sectors, however, are experiencing hard times. Unfortunately for other sectors, the oil boom has the effect of strengthening the Canadian dollar, thereby creating the difficulties we are discussing. The vitality of the dollar is therefore linked to the oil boom in Alberta. It has gone up some 60% in relation to the American dollar in four years, thus depriving businesses of their competitive edge in foreign markets.
They either lose sales, or they see less profits, or they lay people off. Unfortunately, in many instances, businesses do all three because the hurdles are too great and they are trying to survive. Restructuring then takes place and the restructuring plans include the elements I have referred to. So the bottom line is that jobs are lost.
It is also catastrophic to realize that, for every cent that the Canadian dollar goes up in relation to the American dollar, at least 19,000 manufacturing jobs are threatened. As we know, the dollar has shot up in recent weeks, and every time that it went up 1¢, 19,000 jobs were in jeopardy.
The strengthening Canadian dollar has also meant more manufacturing business failures in the first six months of 2007 than in all of 2004. We are now in a situation where those rose coloured glasses I referred to a few minutes ago really must be set aside. The government must not only wake up to the situation but also start taking action, particularly given its much vaunted and huge surplus. This surplus is a complete reality and all manner of measures have been put in place to please this sector and that, while oddly enough totally forgetting those sectors that have been hit the most from the economic point of view: manufacturing and forestry.
The Quebec manufacturing sector as a whole did not make a profit in 2006. We have to exclude the pharmaceutical industry, but for the rest everything was bad. At least, if we did manage to get anywhere, we just made it, without making a profit. Quebec exports have fallen steadily over the last three years. If these statistics cannot wake the government up, I do not know what will.
We are talking about a loss of 135,000 manufacturing jobs since 2002, including 65,000 since the Conservative government came to power. This too should have told these people something. They pride themselves on being in power, on being able to do anything, on being the only ones in a position to take action. And yet, since the Conservatives have been in power, 65,000 jobs have disappeared in the manufacturing sector. Might there be someone, somewhere in this government, who will decide to roll up his sleeves and do something to ease these problems?
I want to talk about the clothing industry because, in my constituency of Richmond—Arthabaska there are many clothing, textile and furniture businesses. These are businesses that have suffered huge losses for many years. It is a glaring problem.
In the clothing industry, for example, there were 30,000 jobs in 2006. In 1988 there were 90,000. The decline has been steady since 1988.
In textiles, there were 17,500 jobs in Quebec last year. There were 36,000 in 1988.
In the furniture industry, there has been a 22% reduction in the workforce.
There are also the paper mills and sawmills. Again, in my riding there are Domtar and Cascades, for example. These are job-creating companies that are pulling out all the stops to preserve these jobs. And I must point out that these are quality jobs. They say that the economy is doing well. They are proud of the unemployment rate. I have heard a number of members here today telling us to pay attention: the unemployment rate may be about the same, but what kinds of jobs are these now? High-tech jobs and jobs with excellent conditions and salaries are being replaced by much more precarious jobs, part-time jobs, less well-paying jobs. This is not included in the unemployment statistics and percentages. So this is a reality which we also have to face up to.
As I was saying, for the paper mills and sawmills, we are talking about a reduction of 10,000 jobs between 2002 and 2005. And since April 2005, if we add the jobs lost in the forestry industry, 21,000 more jobs have been lost.
The rising dollar, combined with Chinese competition in these sectors, has resulted in our traditional sectors being even harder hit. Here again, the Conservative government has not taken the necessary action to mitigate the consequences of this competition. I mention China, but there are many other countries that are exporting more and more to Canada and Quebec. China is the most significant: between 2001 and 2006, Chinese clothing and textile imports have increased by a factor of eight, furniture imports by six, and bicycle imports by five. There are certain measures under World Trade Organization rules that can be taken, but which Canada is refusing to take. Whether the government is Liberal or Conservative, the end result is the same.
Let us look now at some examples of that damage in a riding such as my own. There are many factory closings in the clothing industry—I spoke about them earlier—and in the textile industry. In the furniture industry, Shermag, which operated for years in Victoriaville, has closed its doors. Shermag is doing more and more business with China. Shermag products and furniture, unfortunately, are now made in China. This is happening not only in our area. In the Eastern Townships generally, where Shermag was located, regrettably, many factories have been closed.
In the lumber sector, Placages St-Raymond, Flexart division, has just closed its plant in Victoriaville in my riding. There were about 30 jobs left. In the paper sector, I just visited Domtar in Windsor, where they began a restructuring plan in 2005. They were forced to reduce the workforce. At one time, Domtar employed more than 1,100 people in Windsor; now there are just under 900. There has been attrition, and retirements to try to minimize the damage. In short, they used all available resources so that people would not be too badly affected. Once again, these were excellent jobs with excellent salaries. I do not have to tell you what a disaster it would be if ever we lost those jobs in our region.
There was also Cascades at Kingsey Falls. This company has been highly praised all around the world. Just recently, Cascade said it might be forced to increase its investments in the United States in order to move its production base to where it sells its products, which is the United States. So, this is a serious concern for the people in my riding.
In closing, I do not want to forget to mention some important quotations:
The Conservative laissez-faire policy is not a solution.
Here is a very recent quotation from Denis Dufresne at La tribune, dated November 11, 2007:
—the laissez-faire attitude of Prime Minister Harper toward the manufacturing sector is incomprehensible and raises fears of new plant closings in the regions.
The Quebec Minister of Economic Development, Innovation and Exports, Raymond Bachand, said he was “very disappointed that the Government of Canada had done nothing to help that sector.” He was referring to the absence of any measures supporting the manufacturing sector in the recent mini-budget.
If that does not get the point across, I wonder what it will take to make the Conservative government listen to reason.