Mr. Speaker, I would like to acknowledge the resilience of the people of Madawaska—Restigouche. First of all, after being in zone 4 and enduring two lockdowns since January 2021, we returned to the orange level as of a week ago. On top of that, all of the regional economies neighbouring my riding have been hit hard, as all cross-border traffic from our immediate neighbours, Quebec and Maine, was halted because of the health measures put in place. Businesses in the Campbellton, Edmundston and Upper Madawaska regions have major challenges to overcome since losing most of their customers from neighbouring regions. As we wait for things to return to normal, there is only one way to contribute to the economic recovery of our beautiful regions and to preserve our jobs, and that is to shop local.
I would like to thank the people of our community for supporting our businesses, following public health guidelines and getting vaccinated in large numbers. We are all contributing in our own way so we can get back to business as usual.