Madam Chair, I'm sure the committee will appreciate that in designing these programs and in designing this one particularly quickly, we were looking at a balance of issues in terms of the speed with which the program can respond—which was particularly important in this case—and the risks associated with layering on additional requirements before payment.
There are two core elements to the program. One is the salaries paid and the other is the revenue decline on a period-by-period basis. In terms of the salaries paid, there is information available to the Canada Revenue Agency through the normal reporting of source deductions and so on to demonstrate that there are salaries being paid, albeit not necessarily in advance of the payment of the subsidy.
I think that in terms of balancing the speed of response and the risks involved, that was the calculus involved.