In fact, I think it's the norm rather than the exception now. People find work through temporary agencies. It's not that by working through temporary agencies they are not entitled to all these things, but it makes it harder for them. Temporary agencies are the employers. They are supposed to make deductions and they are supposed to respect the rights under the employment standards, but because they are temporary agencies, a lot of times they violate those rights or they make it difficult for workers to apply for EI. They may delay giving them their record of employment or they may say they will find another job for you, but it could be a very, very lousy job. People are then stuck between the idea of continuing with the lousy job or not do it and risk not getting EI.
There are all these kinds of situations created as a result of temporary agencies not respecting workers' rights. I think that issue needs to be looked into.
I will link here to another cut the government made, which is the cut to the Law Commission of Canada. Right before its cut, one of the papers that the commission was looking at was the changing work situation. They did a discussion paper on that issue, including looking at the temporary nature of employment, the changing employment contracts between an employer and an employee. All these are issues that need a lot of discussion and a hard look at; unfortunately, we now have fewer resources to look at those issues.
Agencies that are devoted full time to look at these difficult and complex policy issues are being cut. I think it is an area the committee should look at also.