Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon. Thank you for inviting me to participate in today's discussion. It's my pleasure to be here on behalf of Canada's 90,000 manufacturers and exporters to discuss federal government support programs on COVID-19 and to outline the need for a strong response to grow the economy moving forward.
Without doubt, COVID-19 has been one of the biggest challenges our country and our sector have ever faced. Within this response, there have been challenges, most notably and most recently with the pace and availability of testing and vaccinations. However, when examining the spending and program response of governments, CME and our members believe the response has been generally excellent throughout. In fact, in a recent survey roughly two-thirds of respondents rated federal and provincial government actions as good to excellent. We believe the reason for this high level of support is simple: It's the federal wage subsidy program.
Fortunately for our sector and the economy as a whole, Canadian manufacturers kept operating throughout the past year. In fact, as an essential industry we were not only relied on to produce goods that Canadians need every day; we also played our part in the effort to equip our doctors and nurses with the tools to fight COVID-19. Thousands of companies responded to the call to produce PPE, medicines and other goods that Canadians needed. Such a mobilization of Canada's industrial capacity had not been seen since the Second World War.
Today, with the efforts of the sector and support from government, manufacturing has seen employment levels and output rebound to pre-COVID levels. These outcomes were possible only because of the various COVID-19 business assistance programs, in particular the Canadian emergency wage subsidy. In fact, based on our survey, 53% of manufacturers used the wage subsidy at some point. Government data itself shows that the sector was the single largest user of the program.
The reason for this is simple. Because we had to keep operating during the pandemic, we needed the money to plug gaps that were being caused by precipitous declines in sales and lowered levels of productivity to operate safely. Other programs were also necessary to help manufacturers tackle cash flow and other problems caused by the pandemic, including the rent subsidy program, tax deferrals and extended work-sharing programs.
At the same time, we fully understand the tremendous cost of these programs and the need for oversight on spending, and we believe these programs must come to an end. But given that economic conditions are likely to remain soft, at best, for the first half of this year, we believe many of these programs must continue well into 2021 to provide ongoing stability where needed. That might be the most important part of this conversation. We need to create the conditions for economic growth and prosperity so that we can emerge stronger from this crisis.
Now is not the time for austerity. Turning off assistance programs while the recovery remains fragile risks inflicting harm on the economy that will undermine growth prospects moving forward. Rather, Canada needs to implement an aggressive economic growth strategy that will kick-start the economy to reduce the country's fiscal challenges. This must start in the upcoming federal budget.
CME has called for the government to introduce a Canadian industrial strategy for the 21st century. The pandemic has shown how critical it is to have a world-class, technologically driven, resilient and innovative manufacturing sector. We cannot lose sight of this. We must work together to build it and overcome the challenges that predate the pandemic.
The 21st century industrial strategy should focus on and support concrete measures that will lead to long-term growth and prosperity for Canada. First, it must aim to reverse decades of underinvestment in technology and productive capacity that has seen Canada fall far behind our international competition. Second, it must address chronic skills and labour shortages. Third, it must focus on the commercialization and scale-up of new products and technologies. CME presented our ideas on specifically how to address these issues previously before this committee, and I would be pleased to answer any specific questions on them going forward.
In conclusion, CME strongly supports Canada's efforts to date on COVID-19. While we should review the effectiveness of these programs and look to make improvements, now is not the time to stop the support, as full economic recovery remains a ways away. The focus must now begin on creating growth plans, especially a modern industrial strategy, that will drive prosperity for all Canadians.
Thank you again, Mr. Chair. I look forward to the discussion.