Human Resources committee  That's right. It would basically take the variable entrance requirement system we have right now and move it to an entrance requirement system that would begin at 360 hours and move up from there. We've made the assumption that there would still be additional entitlement for ad

Human Resources committee  Yes. To clarify, I don't believe that for Bill C-269 in particular officials were asked to provide costs. But we were here in 2004, and at that point in time there were five or six questions that the committee posed, and one of them related to the 360-hour entrance requirement.

Human Resources committee  Sure. Perhaps there's a point of clarification on this. I could speak today to our estimates with regard to the bill as it stands or with regard to the proposed amendments to the bill. It's the committee's preference which we move to on that.

Human Resources committee  The $1.5 billion is an estimate basically of the individual elements of this bill as it's described here. We have had to make some assumptions. For example, around the benefit entitlement table associated with the lower entrance requirements, the actual entitlement for those lowe

Human Resources committee  Yes, people who would be allowed into the program through the lower entrance requirements. Part of that is related to first-time entrants and part of it is related to just the elimination of the variable entrance requirement. So the specific costs that sum to $1.5 billion....

Human Resources committee  The work that's under way at this point in time has not concluded.

Human Resources committee  I'm not sure I understand the question as it pertains to the bill.

Human Resources committee  I wouldn't have a comment on that as an official.

Human Resources committee  Yes, that's correct.

Human Resources committee  I'll take the question, if I understand it correctly, as being what have we done in terms of studies around the proposal that's in the bill here. I can say that there is a significant amount of work under way. I should say, first of all, that we do closely monitor and report on s

Human Resources committee  In terms of whether a minister has asked me for a briefing on this, I would leave that to---

Human Resources committee  I can confirm that we have been asked to look at Bill C-278 and the issues involved with those who are exhausting the 15 weeks.

Human Resources committee  Maybe I could answer in two parts, Mr. Chair. The first question is on persons who are not currently covered by the employment insurance program; they would not benefit from a change in this case. That's based on being in insurable employment, so if someone is self-employed or h

Human Resources committee  To that specific issue, with respect to EI coverage as a proportion of the unemployed population, that does vary depending on the specific labour market, and it varies depending on the employment patterns. So in an area like Toronto, you are correct that a larger proportion of

Human Resources committee  I guess the first point I should mention is that for the six million who are covered through a premium reduction program that EI incites employers to offer, many of those have access to a longer coverage right now as one of the benefits of being covered under that program. With