Right, but those energy prices will rebound, although maybe not to where they were. Surely those companies are aware of that and will have plans to move forward once energy prices move forward, or even before that in preparation.
What we saw prior to this global slowdown were situations where we talked about tens of thousands of people moving into the Edmonton area to start working on these upgraders; they would have had nowhere to live. House prices went up so dramatically. I think it would be fair to say there were probably some projects, although maybe not the specific upgraders you're talking about, that didn't happen when things were good and these were projects that would be serving us very well right now. They didn't happen simply because the bodies weren't there; the people weren't there to work at them.
Again, moving forward, I'm not talking about what's happening in Joffrey and in the existing operations. I'm thinking more about if we're talking about a real downside in terms of missed opportunities for value added, naturally if we were to create those opportunities, through whatever government policies, we would need people to actually be working in those positions, and that would still be a challenge in Alberta. That is what I'm asking about. Looking forward, is there a plan to address that?
One of the things we talked about in the previous meeting with the Conference Board and the manufacturers' association was, for example, adding value, not necessarily in Alberta. We talked about situations where, to add the value, we could move product to where more people are out of work and there's a labour force that could do the work, and then transfer it from there.
Maybe you could speak to this, and maybe Jay could add something to this, coming from the rail side of things. That would be a big part of the solution. What steps might you and your members be looking at to facilitate that?