Thank you very much for putting a human face on what, on Parliament Hill, too often devolves into a conversation about figures and about bureaucratic processes. What gets lost in there is the fact that there are people right now who are losing their lives or having their lives damaged irreparably because we're not providing assistance quickly enough.
It adds insult to injury to know that the government was aware of this problem at least as early as May of last year, which would have been enough time to do something about it, but its position initially was that there was no reason to do anything. It wasn't until well after the fall election that the government got wise to the fact that this would have serious implications for people, and I'm certainly hopeful that we'll see action before the budget.
Thank you for that.
With the one minute I have remaining, I'd like for you just to speak a little to.... The NDP has talked a lot with Campaign 2000 about the need for a low-income CERB repayment amnesty, and it's something we don't hear a lot about on Parliament Hill except when the NDP's raising it. When we talk about the economic side of that, I just wonder if you could speak to how much government can really expect to get back from folks who can't afford the debt burden that the government is putting on them? How much money do you think government could reasonably expect to recover from folks who already live below the poverty line and took the government at their word and applied for help when they needed it?