Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak on behalf of the Bloc Québécois during today's supply debate on the manufacturing sector. I will split my time with the hon. member for Richmond—Arthabaska.
Today's debate is of particular interest to me, because I represent a riding that has suffered from the crisis in the manufacturing sector. Indeed, since 2003, the riding of Beauharnois—Salaberry has suffered a direct loss of 2,500 jobs. In a community like mine, the impact of such a loss is almost similar to that of a bomb. It is rather catastrophic for my constituents.
I will give a few examples. It started with the closure of textile plants in the town of Huntingdon. We talked about it a lot in this House. Among other things, we asked for an income support program for older workers, for the workers who worked very hard in the textile plants and who unfortunately, to this day, four years after the closure, still have not been able to retrain in order to find another job and are now looking at a rather depressing retirement, and a very precarious one from a financial point of view.
Then there is the closure of Gildan, another textile plant located in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield. Recently, we witnessed yet another plant closure which really hurt, namely that of the Goodyear plant, in Valleyfield. The closure of that tire plant alone resulted in the loss of 1,000 jobs. In addition to that, Les Abattoirs Z. Billette, Quebec's only steer slaughterhouse, closed its doors, which resulted in the loss of another 230 jobs in the town of Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague, in the riding of Beauharnois—Salaberry.
I want to go back to Goodyear again to illustrate some of the consequences of closing a plant of that size in a community. Goodyear Valleyfield had a payroll of $85 million in the Salaberry-de-Valleyfield area. When the Goodyear plant closed, 1,000 jobs were lost, but that figure does not include the maintenance subcontractors, the construction contractors, the restaurant and a number of support businesses that had contracts with Goodyear. For example, C.A.T., a transport company, lost a lucrative contract that was important to its bottom line.
When a large plant like this one closes its doors, the consequences are felt not only by the workers, but by an entire region. I can assure my colleagues that the consequences are being felt even though elected representatives and economic development stakeholders are working very hard with the unions and the people who are trying to revive the plant. Reviving a plant like Goodyear or like Les Abattoirs Z. Billette takes a great deal of energy and concentration. I am extremely proud of my region, and I would like to congratulate the mayor of Huntingdon, Stéphane Gendron, and the mayor of Valleyfield, Denis Lapointe, who are leading the way and mobilizing all the stakeholders to find a solution and be innovative and creative.
When everyone is rolling up their sleeves to deal with this crisis, people have a right to expect that the federal government—which has a huge surplus—will support these companies better. Maybe these crises could have been avoided if the government had taken a proactive approach to the crisis in the manufacturing sector.
As I travel around my riding, everyone is talking about the crisis in the manufacturing sector. Everyone is sensing the urgency and telling me how important it is to take real action to try to stem the flood of job losses and find solutions to the crisis in manufacturing. All the parties in the House of Commons are in agreement and are urging the federal government to take tangible measures, like the National Assembly in Quebec, the businesspeople, the companies, the unions and the Government of Ontario.
In short, I believe that the message cannot be clearer for the Conservative government: in Quebec and in Ontario, among other provinces, the crisis in the manufacturing sector is hitting really hard and is causing economic devastation, but also great human devastation. What we are feeling, what we are hearing from the Conservative government is that all is well in Canada.
Of course, when one lives in the western part of Canada, one can say that all is well, but this in fact is hiding a reality. When one knows that the economic boom in the west is hiding the reality of what is happening elsewhere, in Quebec for instance, one has to wonder whether the Conservative government is not totally blinded by the economic boom in the west, to the point of forgetting what is going wrong in other parts of the country, including in Quebec.
Perhaps I should remind the House that 135,000 jobs have been lost in Quebec since 2003, including 65,000 since the Conservatives came into office. To refresh the memory of members opposite, Quebec accounts for half the 275,000 jobs that were lost in Canada. We can say that job losses have a major impact in Quebec. We agree that action is needed. The only people who do not believe that it is urgent to act, who are not taking concrete action, are the people opposite, those who hold the power, who can make decisions and really prove that they care about the manufacturing sector and workers who are losing their jobs.
It is said that the economic boom triggered by the oil industry in western Canada is making the Canadian dollar go up in value. We know that the fluctuations of the Canadian dollar primarily affect the manufacturing sector. I have here an article published in the newspaper Les Affaires. It is entitled “Loonie and Oil Go Hand in Hand”. I will quote this article, which explains how the increase in value of the Canadian dollar is related to the higher cost of the barrel of oil. The article says:
The spectacular increase in oil prices allows for profitable oil sands development in western Canada. According to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, production could quadruple between now and the year 2015. Therefore, the dollar should continue to soar, as long as the price of oil keeps increasing.
More than ever, the value of the loonie is influenced by the price of oil. It is totally unimaginable that the Conservative government would ignore this reality.
Here is a familiar metaphor. If there are 20 jobless people in a room and Bill Gates walks in, the average income of all these people immediately goes up. Similarly, when Bill Gates leaves the room, it is just as easy to imagine that everyone remains unemployed. This sorts of reflects the current situation in Canada, in that the economic boom in western Canada masks the stark reality facing Quebec's businesses, manufacturing sector and workers.
The Bloc Québécois is proposing solutions to alleviate the crisis. These are solutions which, to a large extent, enjoyed the unanimous support of the members of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. I think this is worth repeating.
Since I only have one minute left, perhaps I could quickly mention some of the solutions proposed by the Bloc. We are proposing to create financial tools to promote investment and business modernization. We are also proposing to improve tax support for business research, development and innovation, to pay particular attention to those resource regions that are particularly affected by the current crisis and that desperately need to diversify their industrial base to counter the forestry crisis.
There are many solutions available. The standing committee and the Bloc Québécois suggested 22. One was accepted and implemented by the Conservative government. I am asking Conservative members to listen to this consensus, to take immediate action and to implement the solutions proposed by the Bloc Québécois. Of course, I am also inviting all opposition parties to support our motion.