Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you for your presentation, Mr. Treusch. I'd like to broach a number of the issues you raised.
First, on page 2 of your brief concerning seasonal workers—or perhaps we should refer rather to seasonal work—you said that in many Nordic countries, seasonal work is a key component of the labour market.
That is interesting. Maybe that means we can finally recognize the work these people do across various industries throughout Canada whether it be in the building, farming, fisheries or tourism industry. As far as the fishery and agricultural sector is concerned, obviously we're not going to grow potatoes right in the downtown core of Toronto. Clearly, we need rural regions, where seasonal work is common place, so that we can provide these goods.
I'd like to focus on two points related to seasonal work and labour in general. First, as you know, I tabled a private member's bill so that people entitled to employment insurance benefits will no longer have to wait two weeks. We all know that the waiting period sometimes exceed two weeks. It can stretch out to four, five, six, seven and even eight weeks before a person in need gets his first cheque. This is unacceptable, in my opinion.
Some of us may be able to afford to wait two months before getting a pay cheque while still paying for groceries, the telephone and electricity bills, and their mortgage. But I'm not convinced that someone who losses his job has enough money in the bank to go two months without an income.
This is no longer the 1930s where you could go to the general store and buy material and food on credit. From what I understand the rationale behind the two-week waiting period, in the past, very little, if at all anything, was computerized. All the calculations had to be done more or less manually. In our days, all you have to do is push a button to know somebody's entire history.
I'd like you to comment on the scrapping of the waiting period. This would be an acknowledgement of peoples' needs. If someone is going to get employment insurance benefits for 26 weeks, he or she should at least be able to get a first cheque a few days after visiting an employment centre. The person may not receive the entire amount immediately, but at least it would help to pay the bills. You can't escape it, somebody has to buy food. And I don't think anybody here is about to offer to pay a needy person's bills. We need to find a way of helping such people, and one way of doing this would be for the government to be more flexible.
Could you comment on this.