Mr. Speaker, I must compliment the member for Kitchener—Conestoga, I am quite impressed with everything he has said. Just listening to him provide his reply to the throne speech, we can tell he has the pulse of his community that he represents and is a very strong advocate.
What comes to my mind right away in listening to my colleague is one of the things that Prime Minister requests of the caucus. I suspect other parties have their own ways of trying to provide input to their leadership. However, in our caucus there is this feeling that when we listen to what our constituents say and we take that information and share amongst our colleagues, in particular ensuring that it gets up to those individuals who are making the changes, developing the programs, we can really have a positive impact on what is taking place today.
I really appreciate the comments from the member. Like many of my caucus colleagues, I know there has been a number of virtual town halls conducted, along with reaching out into the communities, listening to what business has to say, and being there for our constituents day in and day out.
For members of Parliament, it is not a Monday to Friday, nine-to-five type of job. It is a seven days a week job. As we witnessed just the other day, sometimes it can be fairly late, even going into the next morning, and it is not just for votes. We listen to our constituents and try to serve them in the best ways we can.
COVID-19 has in fact changed things. For me, personally, for 30 years I have been going to a local restaurant on a weekly basis to meet with constituents. It is something I am known for within my riding. I cannot do that anymore. In the last few weeks, I have not been able to go there because I want to promote being safe, and I want to provide for physical distancing. I lose that aspect.
However, through this process, I have learned something else. It is called Zoom, these video conferences that have been taking place. Now I will often meet with constituents through videoconferencing. We have videoconferencing, we use our telephones more, and so on. Offices might be taking appointments as opposed to having walk-in traffic. Things have changed. We have all had to adjust. Some industries, some businesses have been more challenged than other businesses and industries.
The impact on Canadian society has been significant, as it has been around the world. A year ago at this time no one was talking about COVID-19. We were in the midst of an election. There was not one word about a pandemic. How quickly things have changed. When we stop and think about it, and I have referenced this in the past, it came down to the government working and doing its consultations, making the decisions to shut things down. From virtually nothing, dozens of programs were developed in order to support Canadians.
Imagine being in an industry where the shutdown of the Canadian economy to the degree in which it was shut down meant becoming unemployed, or being an individual who was already finding it difficult to meet their needs, and looking forward, eight months ago, to the pandemic. We were talking about a first wave. Some countries in the world did not avoid the curve. Their numbers went up fast, in days and weeks.
Working with our partners in provinces and territories, municipalities, endless non-profit organizations out there, as well as private individuals getting engaged in fighting COVID-19, we were able to stay under the curve and that was supported in many different ways.
At the national level, we developed programs like CERB, which helped just under nine million Canadians in every region of our country. We provided support to businesses by coming up with a program for wage subsidies, so those employees would not lose their jobs; they would be able to continue on. It helped tens of thousands of employees across this country, literally saving businesses from going bankrupt. We identified specific areas where we needed to provide additional support.
Today is National Seniors Day. It is a great day to recognize and share some love with a senior. That is a group that we recognized when we gave the top-up, for everyone on OAS, of $300, and for the poorest of our seniors, we added another $200 to it.
As I say, it is one of many different programs that were developed. The federal government has played a very strong role in this pandemic. In fact, if members take a look at my province of Manitoba, I suspect what they will find is that 90% of the actual dollars of support come from Ottawa, with the balance coming in from the province. We have recognized just how important health is to Canadians. We have committed literally hundreds of millions of dollars in just the province of Manitoba, to provide that additional support.
When it came time to say to Canada that we needed to shut things down and get control over what was taking place, Canadians responded in a very positive fashion. It was really encouraging. We are in the second wave. We are now in a better position for the second wave as a direct result of the many actions that were taken months ago. Because the education curve that is required is nowhere near as steep, we know the types of things that are important to do. We have learned from some of the science that has come forward since the beginning. At the very beginning, health experts were not saying that we had to wear masks, but today we know health experts are saying we do have to wear masks. That has helped us through the second wave.
We know how important testing is, and that is why we came out with the $19-billion safe restart program with the provinces. Members can imagine a national government working with all the different provinces and territories and developing a $19-billion program that enabled us to work together to make sure that we are protecting the health and well-being of Canadians as we try to get the economy going. For the province of Manitoba, that money allowed for 3,000 tests a day, instead of 1,000 tests.
The Prime Minister announced yesterday that we are now moving forward on the faster testing mechanisms that are finally there. I think it is important that we respect the fact that throughout this process we have been listening to Canadians and our health experts, we have been working with our first-class civil service, the best civil service in the world, and we have been making a difference. Collectively, premiers of all political stripes and members of this House of all political stripes have been able to contribute. It is making a difference.
Lives have been saved and Canadians are healthier as a direct result, but the job is not done. That is why we had to bring in legislation, and what a vote of confidence that was. There was unanimous support. Conservatives, New Democrats and Greens all voted in favour of that legislation.