Thank you very much. I really appreciate the question because I'm very excited about the program.
First of all, in a time of constraint, it's always nice to see that we're investing in something, and we are able to invest in something that's going to really pay off in the long run. It's a million dollars over the next two years and then $500,000 a year after that. What it allows us to do in the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service is to develop workshops and programming and to be able to intervene at an early stage, before we get to that point of dispute between the two parties.
I'll give you a few examples. In the case of Nav Canada in the 1990s, labour relations were very confrontational and very unproductive. That caused a lot of difficulties at work and a lack of productivity, but we were able, with them, to have a number of joint union-management preventative mediation workshops delivered as part of their labour relations improvement strategy. Since then, Nav Canada and its union partners have become models--absolute models--of effective labour relations. You can see that the proof is in the pudding.
On what the service is going to do, effectively, they're planning 35 preventative mediation workshops in 2010-11, as compared to 45 workshops in 2009-10. A reduction in the delivery of workshops took place in light of an increased workload and complexity. So far, as of April 1, 2011, FMCS has provided 37 training sessions and also other assistance, including piloting of its new generic workshop in the Atlantic region to help the folks on the east coast as they go into negotiations with the longshoremen's union.
Thank you very much for the question.