Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all of the witnesses.
I'm a bit torn because, like Mr. Bragdon, I'm in the mood to preface my questions with a lengthy statement. I may not have my father's lunch bucket, but something is bothering me, and I can't hide it.
I think a public decision-maker should tell the truth. It's way too easy to tell people what they want to hear. It's easy to tell them that they are going to keep their jobs, that nothing will change, but that's no way to help them. I think a public decision-maker has to be responsible, and history has taught us as much.
In Saguenay-Lac‑Saint‑Jean, where I'm from, the pulp and paper industry came to a turning point. We don't sell paper anymore. It's no longer the medium most people use, so a lot of pulp and paper jobs were lost. In La Baie, a nearby municipality, AbitibiBowater shut down, and then the mortality rate skyrocketed. Researchers at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi studied the phenomenon. The same thing happened in the asbestos sector. A lot of workers fell on very hard times when asbestos mining came to an end. Nevertheless, people need to be told the truth.
They needed to be told that asbestos jobs were finished. Transition measures should have been developed to help workers. That's what should have happened in the pulp and paper sector but didn't. According to the report the commissioner released this week, we are very unprepared. As an example, he cites what happened in Newfoundland and Labrador in 1992‑93, when the cod fishery collapsed. In the decade that followed, the province lost about 10% of its population. If that doesn't frighten you, then there is something seriously wrong. Climate change is real, and it's having an impact.
As a public decision-maker, my only job is to tell people working in the sector to be prepared. I have nothing against Albertans. I realize their livelihoods depend on oil, but instead of investing $14 billion in Export Development Canada, the government should have used the money to plan for the transition. Why didn't it?
According to an Oil Change International report, all of us collectively spent $78 billion on oil and gas subsidies in 2018. That is an astronomical amount of money. It's a bottomless pit, and who is going to suffer? Oil and gas workers, because the transition will inevitably come.
It's fine to sit here and think about how this will play well on our social media, as we talk about workers and all, but lying to people is totally irresponsible.
Witnesses come here to tell us how we can support workers. At the very least, our job is to listen to them and ask them questions about how we, as public decision-makers, can provide them with support; ignoring a known fact—climate change—will do nothing to help them. That is the wrong way to go.
My apologies for the rant.
I have a quick question for Mr. Bolduc.
In your opening statement, Mr. Bolduc, you mentioned a structure or body similar to a Crown corporation to support the just transition. Could you elaborate on that?