First of all, the dynamics arose out of devastation. We lost about 4,500 direct mining jobs, and at that time our population was about 16,000 people. If you extrapolate that to any normal-sized city, that's economic devastation, to say the least.
Now, the EI benefits that we received at that time were very helpful. They weren't the only piece of the puzzle. There were other stimuli provided, and one of them was to operate one of the mines for another five years to give us a little bit more help moving along, setting up economic development corporations and such. But for those who had a difficult time finding a job immediately after the mines closed, it allowed them to requalify for benefits to maintain a decent standard of living, so they could find that job or be retrained for something else.
It really made a big difference, particularly for those who I consider to be marginalized workers. Those were the folks in the 45- to 50-year-old range, where they weren't at the end of their work life, but from a competitive standpoint in the open market at that time, it was very difficult for them to compete against the 25-year-old and 30-year-old miners who could transition to another job quite easily.
So, yes, at that time, it was quite the godsend for us. It was very helpful, along with a very large package, yes.