I would like to direct my next questions to Mr. Hamilton of the Canada Revenue Agency.
It seems we have a twofold problem here. Clearly, a large amount of these public funds were overpaid. We can agree that this was to be expected in a context where demands had to be met quickly. We were in the very unique context of a pandemic.
The problem is that, at this point, we're unable to estimate how many individuals and businesses received money by mistake, and how much they received. Another issue the Auditor General has raised is that it seems we're unable to recover those funds. Other countries, for example, have created a commissioner position specifically for this purpose. They have put in the effort and, more importantly, they established the process to recover the funds long before July 2022.
How is it that we're unable to say how much was overpaid at this point?