It's interesting that here we are today at this committee meeting and there was an extensive article on a report due to be released—and I think it was released somewhere around noon by Unifor, the union representing most of the unionized workers in the auto industry—it talked about the total hit, as I recall the term they used, of some 30,000 jobs at General Motors alone just in the factory and extended into some of the parts suppliers. If you start to leverage some of those numbers—Mr. Jennings, you mentioned 100,000 jobs. I think it is probably closer to 150,000 jobs in total. It was a fairly significant number.
In the report at section 5.30, the Auditor General states:
Despite the absence of final restructuring plans, Industry Canada had high-level information on what the Canadian restructuring costs would be, how much government funding would be needed, and what the funds would be used for. The Department also had limited analysis showing how the restructuring actions would improve the financial situations of the Canadian subsidiaries, what concessions had been made by stakeholders, and how the companies would repay their loans.
Mr. Berthelette, I wonder if you could elaborate on that?
There are always lessons to be learned and ways that we can improve further, obviously. These are noted in the report we're viewing today. However, it is equally important that we note the statements such as the one above in your report where it says “Industry Canada had high-level information”. I wonder if you could elaborate further on that, and then maybe Mr. Jennings could jump into that as well.