Okay. Thank you. I'm sorry. I just wanted to make sure you could hear me.
I thank you for the question. I think there's a couple of things that I guess I would say.
First of all, we have to remember that CERB was there to help nine million people, you know, pay their bills and support their families.
The CRA has suspended collection activity on new debt during COVID-19. The letters that were issued were not letters demanding immediate payment. Rather, they were letters informing Canadians that CRA could not verify that they met the criteria—in this case, the $5,000 income threshold. I feel like I've been clear from the beginning when asked, and I know our background information.... When I was always asked from the beginning how self-employment income was calculated, I always said “net income”. The backgrounder said that.
I feel bad that people have misunderstood or that maybe the way we communicated has resulted in this misunderstanding, but I can assure the member that we didn't change the eligibility criteria. This is how CRA calculates self-employment income. I don't know how the individual constituent's income flows or what have you, but there's also a chance that during the 12 months, not just 2019, perhaps he made enough income net to qualify for the $5,000 threshold.
The purpose of the CRA letter was to give people information that at this time we couldn't verify their eligibility, so if they could prove eligibility, if they could maybe file their 2019 taxes or prove income during the past 12 months, then please do so. If they turn out not to be eligible, if they could remedy it by the end of the year, their tax income information would be more accurate going into next year. That's what we're dealing with.