Madam Speaker, a good place to start is with the statement the member just made, that he believes the Canadian government needs to get out of the way. In fairness to the member, he is likely not alone. A lot of Conservatives have that sort of mentality, that the government needs to step aside and does not need to get engaged. I will highlight the difference between Conservative thinking quite often versus what the Liberals talk about.
When we think of the coronavirus and the pandemic, it is not unique just to Canada, as we all know; it is happening around the world. Different governments respond in a different fashion. People are very much aware that prior to the pandemic, the government's focus was on Canada's middle class and those aspiring to be a part of it. Many of the policy initiatives were there to support Canada's middle class. Along came the pandemic and we did not forget the primary objective of the government, as mandated by our Prime Minister.
During the pandemic, I am sure people can understand and appreciate why the government needed to focus attention on that. I suspect there was a great deal of resistance by the Conservatives with respect to the degree the government needed to get involved. Therein lies a fundamental difference between the Government of Canada, headed by the Liberal Prime Minister, versus a Conservative opposition.
We understood how important it was to be there in a very real and tangible way for Canadians and businesses. That is the reason we took the actions we did as early as we did. I believe most people in the chamber, especially with hindsight, would understand and appreciate why it was so important. We have even seen some facts that clearly demonstrate we are on the right track.
For example, if the government had not provided the supports back in March and April, what would have been different? Millions of Canadians would not have had the disposable income they required to pay their bills on a monthly basis. Whether people are employed or unemployed, their utility bills, grocery bills and mortgage payments do not stop. What would the population have done? In good part, those who were positioned well would have been able to get financing to sustain themselves and there would have been much higher personal debt at a much higher interest rate. Many talk about banks making great profits. That would have meant banks would have made that much more profit.
What about the individuals who did not have access to additional funds? They may have asked a family member or a friend for support. Many of them would have ended up with all sorts of social issues, everything from suicide to family breakups to different forms of mental illness to an increase in social services at a lower level. It would have been fairly profound. That was why CERB was developed by this government right from the beginning, and it was a program that was developed from nothing.
We can take a look at businesses. I can remember working very closely with the former government House leader, who is now the Minister of Small Business, and she would talk about small businesses being the backbone of our society. The government, right from the Prime Minister's Office to all of my Liberal colleagues, will talk about how important small businesses are to our economy.
What would have happened if government had not been there for that group in our society? Many of those businesses would have gone bankrupt. Some of them would have closed their doors and given up. The outcomes would have been very harsh. We can imagine the hundreds of thousands of businesses that could have possibly been lost as a direct result of a government not taking the actions it needed to in order to have those jobs at the time when, in many cases, those businesses would be able to reopen. Much of that support allowed them to stay open so that they could continue employing people. The program allowed that to take place, and without that program, we would have had a more difficult time restarting the economy. It is a lot harder to get new companies up and running versus companies that have been established but are going through difficult times because of the pandemic. If we can save those companies, the opportunity for us to recover quicker is there, and it is very real.
I mentioned that we have facts to demonstrate that the policies are working. We can take a look at Canada versus the United States in terms of employment but, more specifically, at the employment numbers back in January 2020 and the number of people who lost their jobs during February, April and going into May. Of the people who lost their jobs, how many were able to recover them by November? Members will find that Canada seriously outpaces the United States by 15% to 20% in terms of people who had lost their jobs and are now back at work. I believe it is a direct result of the programs that the Canadian government introduced.
In the beginning, the Prime Minister talked about needing to have a team Canada approach in dealing with the pandemic, and it was encouraging. For the first number of months, here in the House of Commons, the Bloc Québécois, the New Democrats, to a certain degree the Conservatives, the Greens and, of course, members of the Liberal caucus, were all wanting to contribute in a positive way. I genuinely believe that many of the modifications to programs that we saw in the months that followed were as a direct result of what members of this House from all political parties brought to different ministries in the form of ideas and recommendations. I can recall very clearly that when the Prime Minister was first elected as prime minister, he reinforced that it was important that members of Parliament take ideas from our constituencies and bring them forward.
I think we saw a great example of that, especially in the first few months, but if we take a look outside of the chamber, I think that we can be even more encouraged. Those who are following the debate, whether it is today or over the past number of weeks and months, can take a great deal of encouragement from the degree in which society as a whole recognized what we needed to do in order to minimize the negative impact.
We saw different levels of government, provincial governments, indigenous governments, municipal governments and even school boards, come to the table and recognize that we all have a collective role in order to put into place policies that are going to help our population and ensure that the damages to our economy are minimized.
Again, I would point to some facts. The biggest one that comes to my mind right offhand is the provincial restart program. The provincial restart program was $19 billion, coming from Ottawa, going to provinces and territories. That money was based on a series of discussions and dialogue between ministers and provincial jurisdictions in order to know how Canada can assist the different provinces and territories and indigenous communities in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis.
We all knew, back in April and May, that we were going through the first wave and there would be a second wave. No one was surprised, at least not the different levels of government. That is why there was the development of that team Canada approach to make sure that we would be in a better position to be able to deal with the pandemic. We learned a great deal from the first wave, so we were in a much better position to be able to deal with the second wave.
I have some numbers of the personal protective gear that was necessary. Members should keep in mind that we did not have that capacity here during the first wave. The educational curve was fairly steep, and as a nation we did exceptionally well. I do not mind comparing our economy, the state of mind of our society and how it is that we have managed through this, but let me provide some numbers.
With regard to face shields, we had 52,984,000 as of November 16, 2020; gloves, we had 626,923,000; gowns for hospitals, 115,324,000; hand sanitizer, 20,646,000 litres; N-95 respirators, the special masks, I am not 100% sure, but I believe that is what it is, we had 70,163,000; non-medical masks, 28,945,000; cloth masks, 8,553,000; surgical masks, 309,902,000; ventilators, 7,761; and there are still more to come.
These are the types of things the government, during the first wave, going through the tendering process, was able to materialize and to ultimately distribute, working with other levels of government.
The restart program was of great help to our provinces and territories. It provided almost an additional $420 million to Manitoba. When we ask what that $420 million went toward, there is a fairly long list. For example, it allowed Manitoba to triple the number of tests for COVID-19, among many other things.
We understood, across Canada, that there were a lot of nervous parents as the school year began in September. The government, working with others, came up with a $2-billion program of which about $85 million went to Manitoba. Whether it was Manitoba, British Columbia, Quebec, P.E.I. or Ontario, all provinces and territories benefited from that restart money. We all benefited by the way we were able to acquire the important tools necessary to keep our population safe.
Let us fast-forward to where we are today. We are in an excellent position in terms of vaccinations. Months ago during the summer, we were able to successfully negotiate seven agreements that will put Canada at the front in terms of the number of vaccinations we are going to be able to provide. We will have enough to provide more doses than we have people in Canada.
We did not know which company was going to be first. Today, yes, we know, but two or three weeks ago, we could not predict it. We now know that from Pfizer this month, we are finally going to receive some vaccinations. It is because of the hard work of civil servants, health experts and so many others who put Canada in a good position that we are able to have that.
We have passed legislation already that further expands programs such as the wage subsidy program and the rent subsidy program for our businesses. We have been able to accomplish a great deal by working together. When members ask where the plan is or to show them the specifics, there is a plan that is there. Maybe it is not quite in the format that members would like to see, but there is a plan there. We will continue to move forward, in particular with the vaccines.
The area I am disappointed with in terms of the Conservative motion is dealing with the CPP. I am a big fan of the CPP. In opposition for years, I sat when the Harper government chose to do nothing in terms of increasing it so that when people retire, they would have a better quality of life. We finally achieved that several years ago shortly after winning in 2015. I am also disappointed that the Conservatives still do not understand what all Canadians understand and that is the importance of our environment and why they would go on the offensive on the price of pollution yet again. We have many provincial jurisdictions that already have it in place.
The price on pollution is not universally applied in every province, because many provinces already have it in place. However, they will not let it go. That means there is still room for improvement.