That's right. That was really the reason we developed it. This was a project we began with Industry Canada and with the Alberta government and the Quebec and Ontario governments. They're all still very active partners in this.
Companies in Alberta were experiencing many problems and time delays because they couldn't get the people to install or work on product. You could expand capacity in Alberta. Alberta companies at that time couldn't keep up with demand. The idea was to build on that expansion capacity and relieve some of the labour pressure by partnering with companies across the country. There was tremendous opportunity--there still is, because there are still labour shortages--except that what we found was a good example of some of the problems in interprovincial trade. The problems, particularly with the compulsory certification of trades, meant that if you were a company in Quebec trying to install equipment in oil sands development, you were caught in the same labour crunch, because you couldn't use your welders in Quebec. They had to be certified in Quebec to install the equipment. But that just gave some room. We sort of said that what we need are modular manufacturers. You don't have to install it. Just put it in place. It spurred, I think, a lot of innovative thinking about the type of products, as well.
We know that we've developed about $1.5 billion in business as a result of this last buyer-seller forum in terms of the type of opportunity available there and the matching companies. It was a tremendous amount of opportunity.
It isn't easy. And some companies might as well go to China as go to Alberta. It's the lack of knowledge, as you said, about what's going on and coming to the market and not knowing who the companies are, not knowing who the players are, and not knowing the pricing. But that just takes education. Good companies will be in the market. They'll figure out what the problem is, and they'll come back with a solution to the problem. That's where the opportunity for doing business lies.