Thanks, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all the officials for being here today. Thanks so much for your dedication and your hard work through this unprecedented time, which we all hope will be over sometime soon.
I have two sets of questions. The first is around the Canada emergency rent subsidy. The businesses in my riding of Davenport, and I'm sure right across this country, were super happy when they could apply for the rent subsidy directly to the government.
With regard to the two questions I have, one is that, if I understand correctly, if Bill C-14 is to pass, the rent subsidy would become an eligible expense. Does that mean that a business can apply for the rent money in advance of actually having to pay the rent? That's question one.
My second part is that I believe that under CECRA, the first version of the rent subsidy, there were 140,000 small businesses that received the first version of the subsidy. Can you give me an idea of how many small businesses actually receive this rent subsidy now?