If I may, Mr. Chair, I will answer in French.
The Government of Canada swiftly provided emergency benefits and recovery benefits to millions of Canadians during the COVID‑19 pandemic. What we observed was verified by the Office of the Auditor General. The purpose was to determine whether we had taken a reasonable approach, in other words, using an attestation-based system to deliver the emergency response benefit and the recovery benefit to ensure that Canadians in need received the support quickly. This attestation-based approach is very similar to the one the CRA uses for income tax returns. It is based on the premise that people want to comply with the rules and will submit valid tax returns. We advanced this program on that basis.
As the Auditor General of Canada pointed out in her examination of the CERB, this approach has risks. Expediting payments to those in need is consistent with best practices promoted by the International Public Sector Fraud Forum and its principles of fraud control in emergency management. This approach is precedent-based and evolves over time.
The Auditor General also indicated that, once the program had been implemented, we made changes to the pre-payment control process. We added controls when we identified a risk of non-compliance. The agency's approach was really based on attestations and public education. People need the right information so that they can comply with the rules that we have to enforce.
We made a considerable amount of information available to Canadians to help them fully understand the eligibility criteria. In some cases, we even wrote to Canadians when the information we received showed that they were not eligible. The Auditor General also noted that.