I'll start, but Evan may want to come in because he has measures as well that have potential time limitations associated with the crisis.
We've been working at three levels in the department throughout the crisis. The first is the immediate crisis response. We had an unprecedented historic drop in employment. To give you the latest numbers, we're at 7.33 million Canadians who are recipients of the CERB, well over one-third of the workforce. These are unprecedented conditions. The first phase was emergency supports, which we've continued to work with the committee on enhancing in that phase.
The second phase, though, is the phase where we see the restart of the economy. We don't expect that will temporally happen at either the same time everywhere in the country or in the same industries everywhere in the country. It's not like a normal economic recovery where we're likely to see a “V” or a bounce back that's relatively accelerated. It's likely to be much more unpredictable in terms of how to do that.
We are working through how we deal with a phase where it's neither on nor off. How do we deal with the fact that even in our own work environments as a federal government we need to accommodate physical distancing and work through that? How will the income support measures have to be tailored to deal with where, in some sectors, employment might come back full on and in other sectors there might still be a longer period? What does that mean for the duration of the benefits? As Minister Qualtrough has said, and Minister Hussen will say, the government has indicated that these measures are in place for at least this period, with the opportunity to increase the period if necessary.