I just want to ask about.... If we're having a difficult time, what I see today is that many of your concerns are about why we're here today. It's to create an EI account. It sounds more as if we have not shifted our thinking to the fact that this is just about an EI account; it's not about the benefits. The benefits are going to be overseen by Parliament. The government is still going to deliver the programs and make policy. So it's just about having this reserve. The $2 billion reserve was determined in consultation with the actuary from the department, so the $2 billion rate was set to help in the economic downturns.
I'm trying to find out if you could shift your thinking, so that you are thinking just about an EI account and if you were about to set one up, without looking at the past. The $54 billion is not there. It's gone. It's been used. We're trying to prevent this from ever happening again, so that it does not end up being a slush fund, as can happen.
Before I continue, I want to assure you that training and education is really, really important to the Government of Canada. It's important to everyone, to all Canadians. It's important to everyone around this table, and that is the responsibility of all levels of government. That isn't going to be lost because an EI account is being set up. We have to be looking at it as just an account that has some transparency and accountability.
So I think one of the concerns would be perhaps who that board is made up of, and that has been looked at really deeply. Who should be on the board has been looked at. Definitely there should be a representative from labour and definitely a representative from the business world.
So those problems and some of your concerns—and your concerns were loud and clear—I think are being felt and are being implemented in the legislation. But what isn't being understood is—no one seems to be able to forget yet—that there's no $54 billion. We're not going to touch benefits. Do you think there's poor communication? Do you think this is wrong? There is accountability and transparency. Don't you think this is perhaps what this account is doing? You see the accountability and transparency in the new....
And I heard someone say—and I think it was you, Mr. Hanson—that this will be transparent. Isn't that what this is all about, so that we do not have it all going to general revenue? Benefits will still be there. The government will backstop it.
So I'd like a comment. If you were building this account, can you see how important transparency and accountability is by the way it's being done?