I don't know too much about the EI reform process. Certainly EI is important. It's an important part of our social safety net. Every time a region goes through economic turmoil, we see how inadequate EI is. It can work in general, but often when we're in crisis, EI is insufficient.
We've had governments at the provincial level and the federal level step in with top-ups, like in the case of coal, for example, or other resource transitions. We haven't seen any of that recently in the government's sustainable jobs agenda. It's great that we are moving forward with this, which would otherwise be called the “just transition” agenda, but there doesn't appear to be any money in there that would actually support workers in a meaningful way.
What we're concerned about, though, is that EI is only one part of the equation. EI is sort of a parachute for workers who need it in a crisis. That's not the same as providing a new job at the end of the day.
We see that a lot in resource communities, historically. We're worried about it in the case of coal, oil and gas, where you can support a worker for six months or a year, but if there's no job at the end of the road, then you haven't really helped them transition. That's why we've argued for more proactive economic investment in those communities.