Thank you, Mr. Blais.
Back last spring, when we were approached by several fisheries organizations representing lobster fishers in Atlantic Canada, their outlook at the time was certainly very bleak. One of the issues they raised was that they didn't think they would even sell enough product to qualify for employment insurance. So we as a government developed a program with criteria whereby if a fisher saw a significant decrease in income--25% from lobster fishing--and had income of less than $50,000, that person would qualify for a type of one-time payment. The fact that only $8.5 million has gone out the door should be good news, because the season ended up actually with an increase in landings, which mitigated the loss in revenue.
So the fact that not as much money has gone out the door as might have gone out the door is actually good news, because the season was not as bad as they had been anticipating, and fishermen actually did qualify for EI.