Mr. Speaker, although the negotiations on NAFTA are taking place behind closed doors, their repercussions will affect the lives of every person throughout Quebec, including our forestry workers, farmers, and everyone who works in manufacturing, aeronautics, culture, or textiles.
Just about every person in our province will be affected by the ongoing negotiations on the future of free trade. To give you one example, there is a great company in my riding called Rayonese that has been a fixture in Saint-Jérôme since 1954 and employs 200 people. These are local people. Rayonese paid out close to $9 million in wages in 2016, and 98% of what it produces is exported to United States.
If the negotiations result in the elimination of the tariff preference level that our textile manufacturers are entitled to, companies like Rayonese could, in the medium term, be forced to move production to other factories in the United States or overseas. The Bloc Québécois will never allow our workers—