Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will begin with Ms. Pohlmann.
The tax credit for hiring is an interesting measure. We are talking about $1,000 for each new employee. That money comes from the employment insurance fund. We often heard that about 530,000 businesses took advantage of tax credit in 2011. Yet there weren't 530,000 new jobs created in Canada—if we are talking about net numbers—in 2011. That's what I have a problem with. I asked the department representatives who appeared whether the businesses that took advantage of that tax credit had hired and retained employees over the whole year. They told me that was possibly not the case.
Tax credit is very attractive for businesses, but as far as job creation goes, do you really think that each of the 530,000 businesses who benefited from that measure retained their employees over the course of the whole year?