Mr. Chair, I want to thank the member of Parliament for her advocacy for the people of Scarborough Centre on this really important question.
While rent is an area of provincial responsibility, helping businesses across the country is all of our responsibility. This is why we have stepped up to provide rent relief to businesses while, at the same time, helping property owners maintain the rental income through this crisis.
We are asking property owners to do their part in keeping small businesses and their employees to get through these challenging times, and to take advantage of our forgivable loans in order to help small businesses that are the hardest hit by reducing their rent by 75%. This is a win-win situation. Many landlords have already stepped up, and we salute their efforts.
We will continue to do what we can to help protect and help our small businesses across Canada from coast to coast to coast.