Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The issue around people taking sickness benefits is going to become a bigger public policy issue as the demographic challenges in this country continue, with an aging population and an increasing number of Canadians who are taking care of their parents and their loved ones. In talking to the minister and my other colleagues, we acknowledge that the issue around sickness benefits is an important one. I think there is a willingness on the part of the minister and the government to find a solution, or to take a look at potential solutions that are economically sustainable and that work best for those who need it.
My concern, which is shared by my colleagues on the committee, is that we have a bill in front of us for which we have no detailed analysis, for which we have no detailed supporting evidence. I'm new to this committee, but my understanding is that we've had no witnesses appear with respect to this particular piece of legislation. My understanding is that it was put in front of the committee. We should have had witnesses here to testify and the committee decided not to have witnesses. Now we have this peculiar situation where we have this bill in front of us for clause-by-clause decisions and we have nothing to base our decisions on. I don't think that's a very good approach on the part of the people who opposed having witnesses give evidence.
The other thing I wondered if officials would comment on is how does this bill address the hundreds of thousands of Canadians, new Canadians, in Canada's largest cities, often immigrants who are disproportionately left out of the employment insurance system? Studies show that immigrants in the GTA don't have as high an uptake of the employment insurance system because they often are in job categories or professions where they don't pay into employment insurance, so they are left out of that whole approach. Bills like this don't help them either, in the sense that they aren't a part of the system. So enhancement of sickness benefits is not going to benefit this rapidly growing portion of the population, which is increasingly going to be part of the Canada of tomorrow.
Maybe the officials could comment on that.