Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses. I hope that you and your families are safe and healthy, as we wish for all Canadians.
We are working together at the finance committee, like all parliamentarians are working together generally. To the credit of the government, it has adopted many of the proposals from Jagmeet Singh in the NDP, for example the wage subsidy of 75% and the suspension of student loans.
There are many things that I think we would all agree we still have to do. Particularly concerning is the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' report that came out late yesterday, which indicates that with the emergency benefits, over 860,000 unemployed workers, about one-third of the unemployed, will not have access to the response benefit. This is a matter of real concern.
Ms. Torjman, in your excellent testimony you indicated how confusing it was and that it wasn't very clear who is eligible and who is not. Currently we're putting together a contingent of public servants who will have to, as their role, reject people from the emergency benefit. You also indicated a plan B, and that we needed to look to immediate payment if plan A, the emergency benefit, didn't work.
Would it not be simpler and much more effective if we just made the benefit universal, sent it out across the country and taxed it back for those Canadians who don't need that benefit?