First of all, it should be said these workers had nothing but a strike fund to meet their needs for almost three years during the lockout. As you know, a strike fund does not provide as high an income as what you would receive from working. When the company shut down, the workers were left without a dime. They were not eligible for unemployment insurance. In order to get by, they probably decided to dip into their own savings and RRSPs or sell their homes. Unfortunately, the government did not provide any financial support through the Unemployment Insurance program. Yet that support should have been available to these workers who had been contributing to EI for 25 or 30 years.
As a result, these workers faced serious poverty. Many of them went on welfare in Quebec. As Mr. Lévesque pointed out, this was a single-industry town. It was the only industry where people in the town could make a living. Many of them sold their homes at a loss, homes they had built with their savings over the years. For example, houses that were worth $100,000 or $125,000 sold for only $25,000. People had to move to another community. We also noted a very high divorce or separation rate, which had repercussions for the children. So, these workers suffered significant social, economic and even psychological effects by the fact of having simply been abandoned by the Employment Insurance program.