The formula essentially reflects a range of analyses that we were undertaking within the department for a period of months. Following the downturn in commodity prices, we instituted a range of measures to track the EI claims that were coming in. We saw a marked increase in EI claims in early 2015. It was quite specific. In the week after Christmas, there was a large increase in the number of claims. These claims were very localized by province and aligned very closely with any number of other metrics.
In terms of the demographics of the claims that were coming in the door, not only were they located in regions that were heavily dependent on commodities, but the claimants themselves showed a marked pattern of professions related to the oil sector and the commodity sector. That was one level of analysis that was done, and we did not see similar patterns across the country.
In other features that we noticed, we did begin to see an increase in the exhaustion of benefits that started in September or October of 2015. We didn't get a sense from the earlier claimants who were coming into the program that people were having great difficulties in re-entering the workforce, but later in the year it very much increased.
Those patterns of both high intake and then high exhaustion were very localized and correlated with any number of other metrics, and they were specifically the metrics on which we based access to the extended benefits.
The other most pertinent analysis we did was parallel to the downturn in 2009, when there was a much more widespread increase in unemployment rates. There was a pattern of 2% or more in most parts of the country, essentially.