Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My best regards to all the guests.
I thank them for their very touching testimony. I especially appreciated Mr. Cassidy's testimony.
We feel that you are very knowledgeable about that specific sector. You communicate very well what you are experiencing and you are introducing solutions, which is greatly appreciated.
My questions are for Ms. van den Berg first and then Daniel Kelly.
I would like to hear your thoughts on restaurants and small businesses, which are often independent and generally owned by self-employed people. They are often family affairs. They are the soul of our downtown areas and small towns that gives colour and texture to each of those cities and communities.
[Technical difficulties] businesses or presentations have been very eloquent [technical difficulties] after the pandemic. At the pace things are moving, I really fear that, after the pandemic, perhaps in a year—a bit less or a bit more—those businesses and restaurants, which are the soul of those cities, will simply close. That concern persists despite the significant investments and major programs implemented by the government, even supposing they will be extended until the end of the pandemic.
What must be done to ensure the survival of those restaurants and businesses?