Opposition party leaders criticized the Trudeau government’s decision to punish those who are wrongfully taking advantage of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.

In his daily address on Tuesday, the Prime Minister was asked about the criticism to which he said his government is not looking at punishing people who made honest mistakes. Justin Trudeau said this is a “time for us to pull together” as one country, but unfortunately in every situation, there are “a few criminals” who will deliberately try to take advantage of a moment of solidarity. He said that is something that should be punished accordingly.

In response to calls for a fiscal update from the opposition, Trudeau said the challenge with fiscal updates is providing one that accurately predicts what things are going to look like for the rest of the year, and for the coming years. He said that is made extremely difficult given the COVID-19 pandemic. Trudeau said his government has continued to demonstrate openness and transparency on all the measures put forward and has answered questions on all of them both from the opposition and the media.

Trudeau confirmed the federal government just signed two new contracts to ensure Canadian frontline workers can continue to do their jobs safely. He said Quebec-based Joseph Ribkoff Clothing Manufacturing will be providing 1.2-million Made in Canada medical gowns with deliveries starting in July. Trudeau said Brampton-based medical supply distributor, the Stevens Company, will also be supplying 15-million shoe covers, as well as 5-million disinfectant wipes. He said a ship carrying 160,000 litres of hand sanitizer arrived in Vancouver on Saturday, with seven more sanitizer-filled ships set to arrive in the next few days.

Trudeau said Canada has almost a million shipments of face shields and more than 7-million pairs of gloves on their way to the provinces and territories. To connect businesses looking for PPE with suppliers, he announced the launch of a PPE supply hub website.