I do, to say that I think we have to do something as a federal government to be helpful here. We have whole towns hanging by their fingernails across this country. I'm speaking particularly for northern Ontario. I've travelled across northern Ontario over the last two or three months and have met with community leaders, industry leaders, and individuals who are just beside themselves as to what they're going to do.
It's easy to say, as we've heard here, that you just pick up and go to Alberta or something. It's not as simple as that. These are folks, a lot of them older workers, who have spent their whole lives in this industry and have made major investments in their homes and their camps. Some of them have started small businesses. Now it's all being lost while we sit back and simply allow the forces of the market to determine what the end result will be.
These are real people, real families, and communities that could be viable and vital again with a little support and a little help from here. We saw this—I saw it personally—in the early nineties, in northern Ontario again. I was the provincial member of Parliament for Sault Ste. Marie when Algoma Steel and St. Marys Paper hit the skids. The ACR was bleeding to the tune of about $10 million a year because of all of that.
The federal and provincial governments came to the table with resources, giving leadership in a way that sees those industries all today vital and viable in that community. There were a number of them across the north that experienced the same reality and were restructured in that same way.
I'm saying that we need to do something. It was good news today to hear that the government was actually going to flow the billion dollars, not hold it hostage or play politics with it in terms of the budget. That money is desperately....
I'm sorry...?