Mr. Speaker, it must be remembered that following the closure of the mine, in 1999, there were already rumours that the smelter might shut down.
In view of this, we took action and we have since invested $500,000 to help Murdochville's recovery.
We created a $35 million special program for the Gaspé and we set up a regional branch in the region with a staff of 13 to help Murdochville's recovery.