Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.
I would point out, of course, that last June we were considering legislation that retroactively punished CERB applicants, and it was only because of the NDP standing up against that legislation, legislation that would have moved to even include prison sentences for CERB applicants, that the legislation was eventually withdrawn. The idea of retroactivity is something that we've seen this government move on in terms of CERB, not in terms of the wage subsidy.
Regarding the wage subsidy, from the very beginning, members of this committee will recall that when Mr. Morneau came forward, this exact question was asked to him: Are you making sure that there is no possibility of these funds being used for dividend payouts, stock buybacks and executive bonuses?
Certainly other countries put in place a wage subsidy. The NDP pushed the wage subsidy. Jagmeet Singh pushed it because it made good sense to maintain those jobs. However, other countries put in place some protections. Mr. Morneau said at the time that yes, those protections will be in place. At the time, the Liberal government was very clear that it could not be used for those things, those big executive bonuses, dividend payments and stock buybacks.
That is an issue that I think the public is certainly seized with. They expect us to be responsible and expect us to ensure, in a cohesive way, that these abuses that were flagged from the very beginning are actually taken care of.
Mr. Ste-Marie asked about the difference between his amendment, which is very good as well, and ours.
Our amendment prefers April 15, 2020, for the measure to come into effect. This is really the beginning of the entire application process. It is very clear that business leaders were not supposed to use funds in the Canada emergency wage benefit to issue dividends, pay themselves bonuses or buy back shares.
In my opinion, that is very clear and, in the public's eyes, the measure really must be passed to correspond to the government's intention when the bill was introduced last year.