I'm curious about that, because we've heard quite the opposite, not just at today's meeting but in previous meetings from noted economists like Armine Yalnizyan and many others out there out there who have studied this.
I'm just a bit confused, because in your Financial Post piece that I just referenced, the data that you used to say that there is not a “she-cession” under way in Canada ends in August. You take a small snapshot.
Ms. Yalnizyan wrote...and it's not my job to defend her. I just want to put it on the record, and I want to make sure that committee members, including myself, have accurate information in front of them. She wrote a rebuttal piece to you, in which she referenced what was going on in the month of September, the month that information is most recently available for, and I'll quote from that piece.
She says that, in the month of September, there were over 350,000 jobs “missing” from the economy, lost jobs because of COVID-19, and “women's [job] losses accounted for 85 per cent. There were actually 12,000 more prime-age men (aged 25-54) working in September than there had been in February.” She also says that in September “an additional 54,000 men joined the labour market [while] 57,000 women left it.”
I'm struggling with that, Mr. Cross.