Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to thank all the witnesses for being here today, not only for their presentations, but for being so patient while we were voting in the House.
My questions are for Mr. Prud'homme of Réseau FADOQ. But first I'd like to thank Ms. Tassé-Goodman for her clear and informative presentation.
Before moving on to my questions, I'd like to remind Mr. Arnold of the following. Like Mrs. Chatel, I'd like to ask him to suggest to the committee some possible approaches to counteract tax evasion and tax avoidance. We would be very grateful to him. There have, of course, been suggestions from economists, including Mr. Saez and Mr. Zucman. I would imagine that we could do some cross-comparisons. We are looking forward to any suggestions you might have, Mr. Arnold.
Mr. Prud'homme, I'd like to begin by discussing the circumstances of many low-income seniors. Those who receive the guaranteed income supplement were unable to work to the same extent during the pandemic. They therefore applied for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, the CERB. Because the rules were vague, they assumed the CERB was employment income. As this was not the case, their benefits were cut.
From the beginning, or even before, during and after the election campaign, the Bloc Québécois and several other parties asked the government to correct this idiotic situation.
In December, the Minister of Finance gave her economic update and said that the problem would be dealt with. When public servants are asked, they say that the payment will be made in May. When I look at the bill, it says the situation will be corrected in July, this summer. We know that all of these people are in difficult financial straits.
What do you think of this situation, and the timeline in particular?