Mr. Speaker, I will just make a comment and perhaps the hon. member could comment on it. We have heard a fair amount of discussion about how Devco was set up some 30 years ago with a mandate to get out of the coal industry by 1980. I think that is what my colleague in the Reform Party talked about.
What is not mentioned, and I think my colleague will agree with me, is that in the 1970s when the OPEC oil crisis happened and the country was facing a desperate situation because of the price of imported oil, the Government of Canada turned its eyes to the coal industry in Cape Breton looking for help. That plea for help across the country was answered by the generation of coal miners who today will find themselves out of work. They are my age and the age of many of the members of the House. They were promised a future serving Canada in the coal industry, and today they find themselves in real desperation. What are the member's thoughts on that point?