In terms of very concrete things, if the government looks towards the assured income support program for the severely handicapped in Alberta, there are many recommendations from their low-income review that I think could be applied across the country, specifically with respect to changing the provincial social assistance allowances so that you can catch people before they fall. Have those asset allowables be the same across the country, and have a consistent program like AISH across the country.
Right now, DB2 in British Columbia and ODSP here in Ontario are the other two programs that are similar, but that needs to go all the way across the country. If the asset allowables were kept the same, we'd catch a lot more people before they fell.
The other thing is that the enhancement of federally funded non-government organizations is very important. I believe also it is vital that Canada ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and that mental health certainly be covered under those rights.
I think it's very important that we walk our talk. Those are some of the very concrete recommendations that we can make.
Drilling down into EI, the Caledon Institute was quoted here by our colleague. With respect to the employment insurance process, there's another paper that Michael Prince wrote, called Canadians Need a Medium-Term Sickness/Disability Income Benefit. Option two in that paper, with recommendations to the EI program, is another very concrete recommendation that could be a quick win put forward quite quickly.
When I presented under Status of Women Canada with respect to the effects of EI, they asked whether we should have the extended number of weeks or eliminate the waiting period. I said that ideally we need to do both. I really want to encourage government to do both if it's looking at modifying that regulation, because that can be something that happens right away.
One of the talking points that had been put forward is that the waiting period was like an insurance deductible. I had a devastating house fire in 2004, and the deductible in my insurance policy was waived because the damage was over $10,000. In looking at illness as being a very catastrophic thing that could happen in a person's life, we should perhaps eliminate the waiting period for people who are ill.