Madam Speaker, I am a little saddened that I do not see the hon. member's usual photo of the House of Commons behind him, as it is a good reminder of where we would all like to be in person.
I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this issue. As the member mentioned, the budget will be delivered on April 19. I do take objection to his comments that we are not providing a level of transparency. As he knows, the finances of the government, and the expenditures, are done through the estimates process, which he has participated in in his various committees. As well, there was a fall economic statement delivered back in the fall. It is now spring, and we are still debating the implementation bill of the previous economic statement.
I am hoping that as we move forward, in terms of the budget, we will have a more rapid debate so that we can deliver the types of programs that we have been delivering to Canadians to help them. That is what it is going to take to allow us to come rolling back after COVID-19.
We have been there for the nearly nine million Canadians who have accessed the CERB, more than 850,000 businesses that have accessed CEBA, the more than 5.2 million employees whose wages were supported by the emergency wage subsidy, and the more than 143,000 organizations that have used the rent subsidy.
We have been there for them from the start, and we will continue to be there for them.
We are already seeing the results. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the Canadian economy grew by more than 10% annualized. That is better than what we saw from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy. Furthermore, employment recovered nearly all the ground lost in the second wave with the unemployment rate at its lowest since March 2020.
This is good news. It shows that we have done exactly what need to be done. We have been deliberate, prudent and responsible. We have sought to be transparent with Canadians.
Last July, we presented the economic and fiscal snapshot, which provided predictions for the economic situation on that. As I mentioned, building upon that, in November we presented the fall economic statement, which included even more extensive financial information and projections. We have offered an extensive five-year fiscal forecast, which took into account varying scenarios.
The hon. member mentioned vaccines. We are well on our way. We had promised Canadians six million vaccines by the end of March. We are missing that target, and instead are exceeding it by more than 50%. We are well on our way to 37 million doses by the end of June, and more than enough to vaccinate everyone by the end of summer.