I thank all our witnesses for being here and for contributing a great deal to our study.
I am going to start with Mr. Cross and Mr. Mintz.
I think there's a public perception accented around the Loblaws subsidy. Loblaws is a very profitable corporation. There was $12 million given for fridges. I know in my riding people talked about that. There's this very profitable company that's getting a subsidy for fridges when people in my riding are struggling to find affordable housing. There's no pharmacare, so people are struggling to pay for their medication, and there isn't child care. It's all of these things, and indigenous communities don't even have access to clean drinking water, yet this subsidy was given to a very profitable corporation. When we look at loan forgiveness as well, we see that General Motors had well over $1 billion in loans, which they never had to repay, at the same time shutting down Oshawa with that loss of jobs.
I wanted to ask both of you this. What is your sense of the public perception of these subsidies, and whether people feel this is a fair way to proceed when they're struggling to make ends meet?
I'll start with you, Mr. Cross.