Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Morneau, for being with us today. We are all happy your family is well.
We know you're working hard, and I think all of us as parliamentarians, who are all putting in long hours around this, want to make sure things work for Canadians through this crisis and that we get through the crisis with no one left behind.
We will be having similar meetings in the coming weeks. I particularly invite you, Mr. Minister, to come to the session we will have around indigenous communities and the supports offered to them.
We want everything to work. That's why we've been urging you to be as wide as possible in the regulations around the Canada emergency response benefit. However, the reality is that this benefit misses so many Canadians who are struggling to keep a roof over their head and put food on the table. I myself have had hundreds of constituents approach me about these issues and about getting through the next month or two.
There is a way of putting resources immediately in the hands of every Canadian who needs them, and that's by providing a universal benefit. Jagmeet Singh has spoken to this, as have many others. Why not provide a universal benefit to everyone to help us to get through this crisis, and then tax it back from those who don't need it?
My second question is this. Given the shortage of time, as you're also aware, Mr. Minister, Canadians are going into deeper debt in order to keep their families going. We've heard stories of line-ups outside Canadian lenders being longer than grocery store line-ups in some neighbourhoods. Banks and credit card companies have not lowered interest rates, and mortgage deferrals are few and far between and often come with exorbitant penalties. What are you doing in this area to lower those interest rates and to get the mortgage deferrals, which of course also have an impact on the ability of landlords to give renters much more flexibility around paying rent?
Could you please answer those two questions, on the universal benefit and on the interest rate?