Originally, we needed more space because we had been given additional responsibilities. As well, some employees who were in charge of the first infrastructure program were housed in another building. So, we needed extra space to repatriate those employees.
I don't want to go into too much technical and administrative detail, but as Deputy Minister, when I received my annual budget, there was some flexibility there in terms of the way I could use it. Because we had a very significant volume of work, we had already decided to increase our human resources and lower other types of expenditures. We were talking about 30 employees at most. In fact, when the move was to occur, more than 20 had already been hired and appointed to their positions.
I just want to quickly remind you of one fact. In September of 2001, Public Works was informed of the possibility that employees on the Island of Montreal might not move. On February 5, 2002, we officially informed Public Works that we did not want to move the Island of Montreal office and that we preferred it to be located on the actual Island of Montreal, and specifically in the eastern part of the city.