Government Operations committee  Hi. This is Alison McDermott from the Department of Finance. I agree with everything you heard Glenn say and will add that, as he mentioned, that quite a bit of the authority for this funding under the emergency response plan is coming from the statutory authority, and that, of

Government Operations committee  I can try to answer your question.

Government Operations committee  Good afternoon. I'm Alison McDermott. I'm an associate assistant deputy minister at the Department of Finance. We find that it's early to decide to extend the measures. This is an extraordinary crisis. The support that the government has provided is very important. We hope that

Government Operations committee  It's true that we'll have to consider these aspects. It's difficult to give information on it at the moment, but they are important considerations.

Government Operations committee  That's a very good question. We're thinking about the next step. Right now, our priority is to provide support to people who have lost their jobs or who can't work. We want to stop the transmission of the virus. That's why we're focusing on that. In the coming months, we hope t

Government Operations committee  I can say a few words, and I think my colleague Suzy McDonald might want to add to what I have to say. In terms of general design principles, the government tried to move quickly with its response, recognizing that it was important to get support out the door to those who needed

Government Operations committee  Actually, I think maybe Suzy could better speak to where we stand in terms of a government policy decision on the EI rate and the timing of any increases. I can certainly say that with the difficulties in getting the EI system to function, as most folks know, we have been using t

Government Operations committee  It's not being used right now in the way that it normally would be, because normally when people would be unemployed they would go to the EI program and receive benefits from the account. Because of the fact that's been suspended in favour of providing those accounts through the

Government Operations committee  That's being done on an attestation basis right now, but certainly the Canada Revenue Agency, which is going to tax people on that benefit, may require proof from individuals in the future. It will be responsible for administering and enforcing the provisions of the CERB.

Government Operations committee  Sorry—are you talking about the Canada emergency wage subsidy or the business account?

Government Operations committee  That would be my colleague Leah Anderson or Soren Halverson.

Government Operations committee  Sorry, I don't have the number at my fingertips. Let me see if I can find it in the last report. Obviously, these are changing daily but I'll come back to you with that.

Government Operations committee  I'll just say that in terms of the package itself that has been announced to date, it is quite a generous package of $150 billion or so of direct support, $85 billion of liquidity through the tax system, and very significant additional liquidity support under the business credit

Government Operations committee  Sure, I can look at that. As mentioned, the authorities in terms of direct support measures come to approximately $150 billion. It really varies, measure by measure, how long or over what period those are expected to be expended. Some of the big ones, like the Canada emergency

Government Operations committee  We are definitely starting the process of looking at all of the scenarios for the economy. I think we would note that even the Bank of Canada, in its last monetary policy outlook, did not come up with kind of a point estimate, and that's usually what we use for the purpose of fis