Mr. Chairman, may I answer? I'm not coming here to convince you, I'm here to tell you the truth about what I experienced at the time when I was Minister of State responsible for the Economic Development Agency of Canada.
It was clear to me that we had to move. However, the Deputy Minister, Ms. Cochrane, told us that we had made a request in writing, that she'd verified it, and that everything had been done according to the rules as far as she was concerned. For my part, I made a written request once, without any other intervention except the discussion I had with Mr. Boudria to find out whether a verification had been made. He told me to put my request in writing. That's what I did. That's the only time I intervened and I asked whether it was possible, because I didn't want to contravene regulations or government rules. It was clear in my mind and it was never my intention to do anything other than that, while respecting the employees and with a budget available to help Quebeckers who are creating jobs here in Canada.