Madam Chair, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything about the communities that we live in, the way we work and the way that we live. During the last commercial fishing season, as a result of the timing of the pandemic in the spring, not far off from when my community goes to fish, there were a lot of people who had serious worries about their health and working closely on deck with others.
Obviously, record levels of benefits were extended to help people whose employment income or income from harvesting had been diminished. These new investments were put in place to help them get through a time of difficulty. Nova Scotia is seeing cases spike. There were 37 new cases announced just recently and it is trending, frankly, in the wrong direction. I encourage anybody watching this at home to follow public health advice.
Should cases continue to rise, would the minister be willing to continue to support commercial harvesters as they struggle to keep food on the table with the uncertainty that COVID-19 brings to their ability to earn a livelihood from harvesting seafood?