First of all, getting back to the level of GDP doesn't get you back to the same unemployment rate, because population grows. You actually have to be well above the previous level of GDP. We're going to be in this soup for a while.
I think the premise of your question is absolutely right. Government programs are going to have to play a role in protecting against insolvencies. Yes, I'm a banker, but I actually care about people going bust, because they also have our credit cards, not just mortgages that are insured. Also, as a Canadian, I want to see our economy get through this slumber period, and that means partly ensuring that households have some spending power when this is all done.
I think the right approach is certainly to look at all the various things that we're now doing for businesses and for households. We're going to manage them down, to some extent, as unemployment falls. The cost of these programs will come down. As job opportunities open up, we're going to have to provide appropriate incentives.
For example, the CERB program has one not-so-great feature, which is that if I earn $1,000, I get a $2,000 cheque, but if I earn $1,001, I get nothing. Someone who is earning a $1,000 a month has no incentive to look for a job that's going to pay him another $500. Similarly, the program that was designed for the wage subsidy had a particular cut-off.
We're going to need to re-examine these. Fortunately, we now have some time to do that and to design the programs in a way that provides some incentives.
Nevertheless, the support programs—in some form—have to stay in place, because otherwise we do get a wave of bankruptcies. We're going to see some of that anyway. We can't rescue all businesses. I think Sherry suggested that, and she's right. There are going to be things that unfortunately go under and households that are going to struggle. Banks have taken some pretty big hits in their recent quarterly earnings to provide for the losses associated with that. I think government still has to play a big role here; it's a long wait for the economy to be as good again.