Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to make a few comments about the employment insurance system. I remember that during the first few days and weeks of the crisis, my office was receiving calls from people who wanted to make employment insurance claims, and we helped them.
I was struck by one particular call. It was from a single father who provided an essential service and who had to work, but who did not have access to day care for his children. That's when it struck me: everything was closed but we still needed benefits unrelated to employment insurance. I clearly remember the teleconference calls we were trying to organize together.
As my colleague Mr. Desjarlais mentioned, we encouraged the people who were calling us and who were literally panicking to make an application. As soon as the CERB system was put online, there were something like 30,000 applications in the first 10 minutes. A few days later, the total had risen to 3 million. So clearly the pressure was enormous at the time.
I would also like to refer to an article published in La Presse On November 30, about the matter of recovery. When I heard about this decision, I was afraid that we'd be receiving calls at the office from people in a panic. But that didn't happen. I find the following quote very encouraging:
The amounts to be recovered are not considered fraud but rather benefits paid to individuals who were later deemed ineligible.
I think that in the midst of all the confusion at the time, people may have misunderstood or mistakenly made an application, or it may have been us who misunderstood.
At the moment, 1.2 million instances of recovery are being dealt with. Mr. Tremblay, you mentioned the number of letters sent out; the Commissioner, Mr. Hamilton, also mentioned these. How is the recovery process going? Are people complying with their obligations?