Madam Chair, we heard from some members across the way who thought it was very important that they were standing up at this hour.
However, I think it is important that I am standing up here at this hour for my constituents and the jobs in my riding, which, as I said before, are representative of jobs across this country and how important they are.
I will take this opportunity to speak a little about the Forest Products Association. The Forest Products Association of Canada wrote to the minister to outline the following:
As most of the industry’s mills are located in remote areas where rail service is the only viable transportation mode, other forms of ground transportation are either too costly or unavailable to provide our companies with relief, making our sector particularly vulnerable to even the shortest disruptions in service.
It goes on to say, “In addition, the industry does not have the capacity to stockpile finished product nor can it continue production without certain input materials. As a result, any service disruption will undoubtedly lead to the industry incurring significant costs and will quickly result in mills shutting down temporarily”.
Given that we are here debating the passage of the restoring rail service act, it is clear that we need to bring an end to this strike before it can further damage the Canadian economy.
Would the minister explain what effect this work stoppage is having and will have on the fragile economic recovery?