Finance committee  That decision by the government concerns the regional chambers of commerce. I would not use the word panic, because that would be overstating things, but this decision does give rise to concerns. But we should not mislead people either. Workers' funds will not cease to exist. However, some current investments may no longer be made given the new rules.

Finance committee  Obviously, you are quite right to mention the last economic crisis. However, to illustrate the importance of something that may alleviate a problem that is quite cyclical, I will provide you with an even more concrete example. Things are not going very well in Quebec's mining sector.

Finance committee  An impact study has not been done. Unfortunately, I missed the beginning of the testimony of the previous guests, but I heard Mr. Bolduc mention that if the federal government decides to go forward and uphold this decision, for them, I believe it means that they will lose 16,000 jobs.

Finance committee  I don't know if one could say there's unanimity but one can certainly say that in Quebec there's a rather broad consensus within society, within political parties, within the public and within businesses that labour-sponsored funds have had a very significant impact on regional economic development, among other effects.

Finance committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Members of Parliament, members of the Standing Committee on Finance, Ms. Bertrand sends her apologies for not being able to come here this afternoon because of an unforeseen event, so I am replacing her today. First of all I would like to thank you for allowing the Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec to present its point of view today on the gradual phasing out of the federal tax credit for labour-sponsored venture capital funds.