Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We know that Bill C‑30 provides for a gradual decrease in the percentage of the wage subsidy. We also know that the Minister has the power to make regulations to change the percentage and to maintain it at a higher level if necessary. A number of the witnesses who came to the committee to testify on Bill C‑30 told us that it is really important for their industry and their economic sector to keep the percentage of the subsidy up.
Amendment BQ‑3 gives the Minister the power to increase the rate, not for the economy as a whole, but for certain sectors of the economy that she could identify, including the particularly vulnerable ones, where a decrease in the rates in the fall would have catastrophic consequences. It would allow the Minister to be able to target those sectors and increase the percentage of the wage subsidy to correspond to the one currently in effect.