Human Resources committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. My name is Jean-Claude Rocheleau and I am President of Union Local 121 of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada at the Shell refinery in Montreal. For reasons of transparency, I also wish to mention

Human Resources committee  There is also an ugly side to this bill. This is obviously not a reform and any attempt to portrait it as such should be strongly rebutted. A real reform would have included the 1.4 million unemployed workers who have been left by the wayside. We seem to have lost sight of the fa

Human Resources committee  I did not say that was the best way to help the workers. That is what had been presented. That is what is there to help the workers immediately. Just in case there are people who do not know, there are people who currently need help and they do not need help in six to eight month

Human Resources committee  I do not want to answer a trick question because I was not here when the budget was studied in detail. I do not want to go that route. I am here to talk about a bill. So I will not go into detail on the estimates.

Human Resources committee  There are 350 unionized workers.

Human Resources committee  Yes.

Human Resources committee  Correct.

Human Resources committee  No.

Human Resources committee  Yes, when there isn't a crisis such as the one we have now.

Human Resources committee  It depends what is going to happen, what we know and what is hanging over our heads. If the refinery is closed, the 350 workers will be laid off.

Human Resources committee  You would have to ask the company to tell us. Since this summer it has placed a sword of Damocles above our heads, saying that it will get back to us, without ever giving us a date. So I cannot answer you.

Human Resources committee  I said it could help people, that this was the figure announced.

Human Resources committee  We estimated that about 190,000 people would be affected. This is probably not the exact number. No one seems to know for certain. After reviewing everything and trying to understand the numbers, I still haven't found out exactly how many people will benefit from this initiative.

Human Resources committee  ...and will require assistance of this nature.