Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
You know, there's at least a desire on my part to be able to say, “Oh, let's take the time that we need.” The reality is that part of the reason we set these timelines is that the House is set to rise by the end of next week. You have to set some timelines if there are going to be some amendments so that we can bring the bill back to the House, follow the proper procedure and allow the bill to pass in the House. That is the reason that we have to set a timeline.
I want to put this on record and then I want to propose a subamendment.
Look, the emergency measures were always designed to be temporary. They were always designed to be temporary. If you look at the courses as we've been trying to move out of COVID, you see that we've been targeting our supports even more specifically as we've been moving through the different stages of COVID. We know that our economy has shown some positive progress with the number of jobs that have come back. Canada has now recovered over 100% of the jobs lost during the pandemic. GDP growth in 2021 is projected to be 5.7%. Just in the last quarter it was 5.4%. We see a lot of businesses coming back on stream. More and more Canadians are being vaccinated. We see a lot of positive signs.
I say all of this because I think the reality is that we have to pivot into more specific supports. I think we also understand the need to be prudent and to carefully manage government spending. I'd also say, though, as someone who has a large arts and culture community in my Davenport riding, that I care a lot about continuing support for them and that I am looking for that type of support, as we promised in our last election.
I do appreciate that there are some Canadians.... We've learned through the pandemic that some of our supports haven't been as supportive to some Canadians as they are to others. I do think there are a number of measures that our government is currently taking in order to address those issues, such as the EI reform that we're looking at right now. As well, the issue with the GIS and seniors being asked to pay back the CERB is very well recognized, and I think our Minister of Seniors has committed to addressing this issue.
Saying all that, I do believe it is important for us to have some sort of a timeline and a time frame so that we can pass these supports. As my colleague Ms. Chatel mentioned, we all appreciate the urgency of getting this bill passed before we rise for the winter break, due to the unpredictable nature of the current public health situation and the unpredictability of COVID.
The subamendment that I would like to propose is that we would eliminate (f) and that (e) would say that proposed amendments must be submitted to the clerk at the end of the day on Thursday, December 9.
It gives us more time than the 3 p.m. on Thursday. It gives us right to the end of the day. It provides us more flexibility.
Again, this subamendment would eliminate paragraph (f) and rewrite paragraph (e) to say that proposed amendments would be submitted to the clerk at end of day on Thursday, December 9.