Mr. Speaker, as we have said before in the House, meetings have already been held between Devco's management and union representatives to review the human resources package and they continue to meet.
I am pleased to say that co-operation between management and the union is strong at the present time. Before the roof fall at Phalen colliery, production was very good. Since the roof fall, unions and management have been working together to clean up the coal face and assess the damage. To this end, both the unions and management have hired independent experts to assess 8 east wall with Devco management agreeing to pay half of the union's independent expert.
To reiterate, the criteria to determine eligibility for the early retirement incentive program have not been pulled out of a hat. They are the criteria that were negotiated between Devco and its unions through a joint planning committee in 1996. They are the criteria that Devco's collective agreements indicate shall apply to the early retirement incentive program for any further workforce reductions. The $111 million in funding that has been approved by the government for workforce adjustment measures includes $60 million for an early retirement incentive program, $46 million for severance packages and $5 million for training for employees who receive severance packages.
I want to make it clear that the early retirement incentive program has absolutely no relationship to the pension benefits that Devco's employees have earned through participation in one of the corporation's pension plans. Workers will continue to be eligible for any earned pension benefits.