Human Resources committee  I can give you a general response on those issues. At that time, I believe the government did table a more specific response to each of their recommendations, but in terms of the cost implications of such changes, they would be quite significant in total. It would be difficult to

Human Resources committee  What I'm saying is that for the sum total of the recommendations you're talking about there, it would be difficult right here to provide you with an estimate of what those would be, but it would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars for sure.

Human Resources committee  I would take that question as a matter of future policy direction for the government and, in that respect it is probably inappropriate for me to answer. I believe the government did table a response at the time.

Human Resources committee  The issues raised in each of the three major recommendations you have raised pertain to the qualification requirements for the program, the duration of benefits available to claimants when they file, and the replacement rate or amount of their wage covered. Those are three things

Human Resources committee  Sure.

Human Resources committee  Yes, the current duration is 15 weeks, and that was established quite some time ago, but it probably continues to reflect the short-term sickness coverage provided by most employers. In that respect it is somewhat complementary to some of the other types of longer-term insurance

Human Resources committee  There was a pilot project that was not implemented permanently and nationally. It was referred to as the mères brimées pilot project. It was implemented in Quebec and dealt with people taking what is called a retrait préventif. The results of the pilot showed that it was somewhat