Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister Rodriguez, welcome to the finance committee.
The first question I have is about the accountability measures in this legislation we're talking about in relation to the CERB benefits that have gone out already being about 80% more than originally budgeted by the government.
We have an extension here of seven months, allegedly $7.4 billion in extra spending, but that extension can actually be nine months. Let's call it nine and change of excess spending. That's more spending that we're going to be doing to address these matters without any accountability mechanisms built around them and, indeed, no definitions around some of the retrospective applications and how they're going to be applied here.
In addition, you have the extension of time this program is available until 2026, so an extra two years. That's allegedly seven months more of benefits, but two years more of applicability.
Can you see that one might question why there's a lack of accountability in the definitions in this legislation?