Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Again, let me thank the witnesses. This has been a good lively discussion on an issue that matters an awful lot to an awful lot of Canadians, so let me commend Monsieur Godin for bringing it forward once again as well.
I want to go to what I was talking about the last time, that I believe we need to do something on the EI side. It may be on the employer premium side as well, but we've done a lot on that side in the last 10 years. We need to do something with EI to make it meet the needs of Canadians in a more effective way.
The issue, what is it? We've had some private members' bills. We've looked at Bill C-269. We've looked at eliminating the two-week waiting period, which is very justifiable. It makes sense to me. Eliminating the black hole on the other side makes sense. We need to do something for part-time workers and for female workers. Self-employed people, creators, artists are discriminated against in the EI system, I would argue. Some of them are prepared to pay both sides of the premium if they can qualify for EI.
We can go from 55% to 60%, we can extend the benefit period, and we can look at the arm's-length provision whereby people in communities are discriminated against because they happen to work for a relative, for example. We can look at Bill C-278, Mark Eyking's bill. To go from 15 weeks to 50 weeks on sickness makes a lot of sense. I think the cost of that was in the range of $700 million, if I'm not mistaken. It costs $1.2 billion, I recall, to go from 55% to 60%. So we have to figure out the best thing.
I want to comment on Pierre's comment earlier about the fact that he has led a movement to bring the three opposition parties together on EI so we can go forward. The NDP and the Bloc are entirely well intentioned with their movements on EI. We're looking, as a government in waiting, at how we can really move forward with employment insurance reform that makes sense. It's not a burden that's carried by the NDP or the Bloc, with all respect. We have to look at what we can do, people like Mr. Rodriguez, who's joined us here, and Rodger Cuzner, and Dominic LeBlanc, and the people who are looking for EI reform. We want to do the right thing for EI, but we want to make some changes. I think some of the leadership that was shown by some of the labour groups, particularly in Quebec, to bring us together is worthwhile. We need to do something to be fairer to workers.
I want to ask a specific question. I was going to Laurell, but Barbara, perhaps anybody, maybe starting with you, tell us about a specific circumstance that a lot of women find themselves in on EI, which is the vicious cycle of child care and employment insurance, and the fact that, you know, you have to be able to go to work, and one of those conditions is that you have to have some child care, particularly in the case of single women who don't have it. Can you comment on that vicious cycle piece of it and how it affects women?