Yes, absolutely.
One of the difficulties right now certainly is with the EI program and the number of Canadians who are unemployed who don't have access to the program as a result of their particular work histories. I know there are a number of recommendations on the table around improving access to the program. Certainly, the steps that the House is contemplating to extend benefits for a group of workers who became unemployed, I guess from January this year, will be important for a select group of workers, but many others are outside of that safety net.
It reflects the problems in a system that is designed for people who have continuous work histories. Certainly vulnerable Canadians, and many Canadians employed in sectors like forestry and construction, go through periods in the year, actually planned periods of the year, where employers close their doors. And working in that type of industry, if they don't have continuous employment records they become vulnerable in terms of making claims on the EI system, which is after all a system that is financed by workers and employers.
This type of economic downturn has certainly revealed the holes in the system, and I think what will happen in short order is we'll start to see the pressure on the social assistance systems, as we're already seeing numbers climb in provinces across the country.
The other big problem I think the economic recession is highlighting is that much of our training and our resources to help unemployed workers is tied to EI. So if you don't have access to a claim, if you aren't a claimant, then you are not able to access a whole suite of services that are put in place for unemployed workers, many of which are organized through unions, employers, and the like. The weakness of our training systems, our lifelong training systems outside the EI program, I think are particularly evident right now.
So, yes, absolutely. There have been moneys in the past. The EI budget basically financed much of the debt reduction through the last 15 years, and those moneys are not available at this time.