Thank you. Yes, there are. Canada is getting there. It is starting to pick up some of the examples that have worked in other countries. Unfortunately, it's doing it really, really slowly.
I want to say, just for the record, that I recognize that civil servants have been working around the clock to put together programs that have never existed in Canada, and that's an incredibly difficult job. I give them credit, but the delay we had in launching the wage subsidy, for example, and on top of that the addition of all sorts of rules and regulations, meant that many are excluded from using the program.
Governments in Europe, for example, were admittedly a couple of weeks ahead of us, and when they took these measures, they put them in place quickly and, for the most part, cleanly, without a million different conditions and attestations that you're going to give your firstborn if something goes wrong. That, I think, is one of the struggles we're having. In England, for example, the program they launched was an 80% wage subsidy, full stop. Every employer, small, medium and large, whether they're ahead, behind or somewhere in between, can gain access to it.
I think we do need to reflect on that as we now design programs for rent, in that if we make them too cumbersome, business owners begin to give up. If we delay the launch of these programs, business owners give up.
The policy mix that the government is pursuing is a positive one. I think the wage subsidy was most important. Some lending was also important.
Rent has been the piece. With the May 1 rent coming around the corner, we just need to deliver something on that quickly. If we do that, I think we have a fighting chance of having the majority—not all, but the majority—of our small business community make it across the emergency phase of this.