Mr. Speaker, the need for rapid testing for COVID-19 is not a request nor is it something we can negotiate on. Here are the facts: Canada's unemployment surged to 13.7% this summer; Nav Canada announced that it is cutting another 14% of its workforce this week; and hundreds of small businesses across this country have been forced to shut down since March.
We have come to the point in the timeline where we have accepted we will have to live with COVID for the foreseeable future. We must improvise, we must adapt and we must overcome. Despite various pilot programs funding rapid test research across Canada and numerous countries around the world using innovative rapid testing methods, the Liberal government is napping on the possibility of getting our country back to relative working order.
On behalf the country's airlines; our nation's moms, dads and loved ones who have been separated for months; restaurant owners; workers, retailers; and employees, I urge the government to wake up and signal the green light for rapid testing, not tomorrow, not next week, but now.