Thank you, Mrs. Chatel.
Mr. Lawrence, I'm going to follow up on your comment.
Actually, I agree. I want a Canada where everyone has a great job or a great pension because they worked hard all their life. In fact, that is why I believe so strongly in some investments that we're making in this budget and that we made in previous budgets. That's why I believe in our investment in early learning and child care. It is not only great for kids who have great child care; it's great for parents who can go out and get a job—especially mothers—and support their families.
That's why I really believe in what we're doing in this BIA on the Canada workers benefit. I hate this reality about the Canadian economy, and I hope working together we can change this, but there are a lot of people in Canada today who work really hard every day, and who do some of the hardest jobs—less glamorous and fun than our jobs—like the people who are going to clean up this building when we leave today. A lot of those essential workers can work really hard and they can have a job, and they still don't make enough to make ends meet. That's why I'm a big believer in the Canada worker benefit. We've increased it, and we're paying it in advance.
That is also why—and Daniel has spoken about this—our focus during the COVID recession was, and afterward has been.... If you said to me, “What's the one indicator or what's the one data point you want to optimize?”, I would say jobs, jobs, jobs.
On that measure, Canada has done remarkably well. We have recovered 129% of the jobs compared with prepandemic levels, compared with the the depths of COVID and compared with 115% in the U.S. That's 900,000 more jobs. I repeat that for the reasons you raised.
I want all Canadians to have a great life, and I believe that a great life starts with a great, well-paying job, doing work you care about and that is respected, knowing that when you get older...knowing that when you get sick, you have a health care system that can take care of you, knowing that your kids are in a great early learning and child care centre, and knowing that when you retire after a life working hard building our country, you're going to have a great pension.
That is my focus. I hope it's a focus for all of us.