Madam Chair, I thank my hon. colleague for giving me the opportunity to lay out the real facts about everything that has happened in our economy since the pandemic hit.
I want to emphasize that the Canadian economy has almost fully recovered. We have recovered 106% of the jobs lost at the height of the pandemic. Earlier this week, we learned that 154,000 jobs had been added to our economy. That points to one very important fact I want to stress this evening: We rebuilt our economy rapidly after the recession. This is the shortest economic recovery in Canadian history. I think it is very important to point out how entrepreneurs across the country and our government set the stage for such a strong and powerful economic recovery.
To answer my hon. colleague's question, we know how difficult the pandemic is for seniors. I have spoken about this with my constituents. I spoke to people who voted for me, for us, and they are asking for our help. That is why we worked very hard during the campaign. We stated very clearly in our platform that we are here to improve seniors' lives, and that is why we worked hard to improve seniors' income security, including the guaranteed income supplement, or GIS. We created the CERB to help people at the height of the pandemic, and we know that some seniors who usually receive the GIS are facing certain challenges today because they received the CERB. Resolving this problem is a complex task, but we will do it because we are up to the challenge. We are making a solemn promise to seniors across Canada.