Thank you. I'll start that off, and maybe colleagues might want to add to it.
With regard to the EI program, when the pandemic first hit back in March, we were closely watching our overall EI claim volume intake. In the first two weeks of March, there was not much of a difference, but then that middle week of March is when claim volumes skyrocketed. We received 87,000 new EI claims in one day, which was by far the most we had ever received in one day, even going back to the global recession in the late 2000s. In subsequent days, we received over 180,000 or 190,000. When that started coming in, we knew that our standard response would not be adequate.
I would like to tie in to the question about lessons learned that was answered earlier. I want to be clear that the EI system did not fail. The measures we took in implementing CERB ensured that the EI system wouldn't fail. A key lesson learned was in partnering with CRA. CRA and Service Canada, as part of ESDC, were key partners. We jointly delivered the program to ensure that it would be adequately delivered and we dramatically simplified the EI program. Therefore, we were able to take in those millions of applications that we received in late March and April, and throughout the pandemic.