Thank you very much for the questions, Mr. Ste‑Marie. Indeed, I have the impression that, otherwise, we wouldn't be talking much about employment insurance.
At the same time, I can understand the shame of the Liberal government for not taking action. I can understand the shame of the Conservatives for imposing these budget cuts in the 1990s, which explains why we're stuck with such a botched system. Social legislation is the way to help people.
To answer your question specifically about administrative tribunals, there were serious problems with one of the Conservative reforms in 2012, which abolished former administrative tribunals and replaced them with the Social Security Tribunal. In particular, there were problems with appointments, as cronies were being appointed. There were also delays, when it took months and months to get a hearing, and then it took months and months to get a decision. What's more, these decisions were made by arbitrators who thought they were Supreme Court justices.
So there were real problems, and they had to be solved. Will the EI appeal board, the new administrative tribunal that will be set up, be able to compensate for these problems? If so, all the better, but at the same time, one tribunal can be replaced with another, but that's not the real problem. What we really need to do is reform the employment insurance program. This is social legislation that will repair the social safety net and better protect people in precarious employment situations.
This has been raised several times, but 35% of the labour force works in precarious conditions; 20% of the labour force, or about four million people, two thirds of whom are women, work part time; 15% of the labour force works seasonally or temporarily, on call or on a split schedule. All these people need a social safety net to support them when they find themselves unemployed.
As for seasonal workers, let me remind you of the Liberal government's promise, which was not to perpetuate a pilot project, but to make it an improved program and to enshrine it in the legislation.
Once again, we're postponing all this and not really solving the problems, and that's really very unfortunate.