Mr. Speaker, with regard to (a), regarding the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario’s target of rendering a decision on applications within 80 working days of the receipt of a complete application and to issue payment on eligible claim submissions within 35 working days, this target was not met 15% of the time due to increased demand from rural and Indigenous communities and delays in resourcing vacant positions within the Agency, both of which impacted service delivery time.
With regard to (b), 19 applicants waited longer than 80 working days for a decision to be rendered.