Thank you very much, Madam Chair; and thank you to the minister for being here today.
Minister, quite frankly, Canadians are at a stage now where their confidence is being strained. We're getting a lot of flowery words from the government of things that are happening, but what we see in rural parts of the country is convenience stores that are open and small businesses that are being shuttered. We have packed parking lots at big box stores, but everybody else has closed because of COVID-19. The products that would normally be sold in these communities are being purchased now in the big box stores because they happen to have food associated with them, but this is certainly the way to destroy the backbone of rural Canada, so that's really a critical part that we have to keep in mind.
I'll go back to a discussion that I believe the Bloc member brought up in talking about oil and gas. Quite frankly, your mandate letter makes it clear that you don't even have oil and gas in that mandate, and it's frustrating to see that it would not be in the mandate of an industry minister. Of course, some of the actions we've seen from this government have proven that there is a major lack of concern.
Meanwhile, Canadian companies are at the forefront of innovation and breakthroughs that could help us in the current battle against COVID-19. To me, it's a mystery why the Liberal government has decided to turn its back on Canadian high-tech start-up companies by excluding them from eligibility for the Canada emergency wage subsidy.
Could you talk about why some of these high-tech start-ups are finding it so difficult to engage in that program?