I'm happy to expand on that.
One of the recommendations the Auditor General made to us in her first report regarding the wage subsidy was to look at other data sources, including in particular the GST data. We incorporated the GST data as a prepayment verification control in the context of the Canada emergency rent subsidy.
We found that it identified a high number of claims that appeared to be ineligible, that appeared not to meet the revenue-drop criteria, but upon a manual review of those claims, we found that in fact they were eligible, so we concluded that, on its own, the GST data was not a good indicator of ineligibility. Because we were trying to strike a balance between protecting the integrity of the programs and delivering the funding that was urgently needed, the decision was made not to incorporate the GST data as a prepayment control in the context of the wage subsidy.
However, I think it is important to be clear that the GST data is an important risk indicator. We use it in the context of our postpayment risk assessment, but not on its own. We consider it alongside other data sources in order to identify risk and build our audit plans as a result.