Devco spent billions dressing up a dead industry. Three generations of miners worked in what might as well have been fantasy land, making false contributions, mining for mining's sake. In preserving their way of life, the miners were themselves not above arrogance. Government attempts to streamline Devco were railed against. At times union contract negotiations turned to violence.
Hope is all that most have.
It is an altogether more painful thing to do. There is no way to know if the federal government ever believed Devco could show a profit. In the end the only people truly helped by Devco were the members of parliament elected to keep the checks coming. Preserving a dying industry under false pretenses bought miners time, but being more reliant on mining than ever has made the inevitable transition hurt that much more. To the rest of Canada, Devco is another of the misbegotten projects that has buried the nation in debt.