As perhaps Mr. Lessard knows, I cannot answer that last question. Obviously, whether all or any of those recommendations get accepted is in the hands of the government to decide.
I guess I would just make two really quick comments, one on the number of unemployed covered by the unemployment insurance system. The main reason for the drop was not the changes to the employment insurance program; the employment insurance program actually allowed more people in than before. What has actually happened is that the nature of unemployment.... When you think about who the unemployed are, there's a group of unemployed who are working, paying EI premiums, and losing their jobs, with the vast majority of them qualifying.
The other big portion of the unemployed is people who are looking for a job but who have never worked before; they could be young people, they could be new immigrants into Canada, they could be people who have a very marginal attachment. There are also people who are self-employed—and there's a question, obviously, of whether they should be paying premiums, but they do not pay premiums. Increasingly there are people who are now unemployed for two weeks or less, because unemployment in large parts of this country is very marginal. So if you're unemployed for two weeks or less, you are not eligible for EI, because everybody has a two-week waiting period.
So the question is not so much, is the EI program providing benefits to the people who are paying premiums and lose their jobs. The argument in that case is, yes, they very well are doing that.
There is another question that needs to be asked about the other group of unemployed who have no work attachment, or who have never worked before. The EI program is not designed for them; obviously, if you're not working and haven't worked in the last year, or are a new immigrant, you have not paid EI premiums, so you cannot be eligible for a program that is there for people who pay EI premiums. The question then is, do we have other programs to help those people get into the labour market? Do we have programs that enable new immigrants to actually find that first job and get them into a job where they are paying premiums? Do we have programs to help the long-term unemployed?
It's not a question of the EI program no longer being there for people who pay EI premiums.