Human Resources committee  I think the member is asking how the cost of the bill would be translated in premium payers. A good rule of thumb--rather than doing that calculation per capita--is that an increase in cost of $100 million per year equates to about 1¢ in the premium rate. So as a rough rule of th

Human Resources committee  The current premium rate is $1.73 for employees.

Human Resources committee  I wouldn't be able to speak to whether it would impact most negatively on a particular income group. It's certain that when you go to a flat rate, the vast majority of the reduction, if you will, the proportional reduction, is in areas of low unemployment than in areas of high un

Human Resources committee  The balance—

Human Resources committee  The accumulated balance in the EI account is in fact an accounting record. It's the difference between the credits and the debits to the account, so it is in fact notional. That means there's not a particular amount of cash equivalent to that sitting in the CRF.

Human Resources committee  I don't have the exact figures in front of me, but it's approximately 15 million to 16 million workers who pay in every year.

Human Resources committee  Yes, that's correct. It's important to distinguish that the cost of the pilot project for the best 14 weeks that I've provided was the cost estimate when the pilot was introduced. We don't have the final numbers for that yet. But the cost estimate that has been provided for the b

Human Resources committee  There's the “best 14” pilot project.

Human Resources committee  And there's a NERE pilot project--new entrant, re-entrant--which reduces entrance requirements.

Human Resources committee  Thank you. I believe the final amendment to speak to would be Monsieur Lessard's amendment, which proposes to increase the benefit rate to 60% from 55%. Our estimate of the cost of that is $1.2 billion per year. That's for all benefits, nationwide.

Human Resources committee  For the purposes of giving the committee information today, we've costed these not taking into account a pilot project. Those are temporary measures.

Human Resources committee  I would have to check, but yes. To be clear, though, these estimates are national numbers if these changes were implemented nationally and permanently.

Human Resources committee  For the NERE, yes.

Human Resources committee  If you'd just give me a moment, I'll see if I can find that cost.... I don't have that cost with me. I'll have to check it. I can easily provide it to the committee.

Human Resources committee  That's right.