Merci beaucoup, Madam Chair and members of the standing committee. I'm pleased to have this opportunity to appear before you again today to provide an update on implementation of the economic stimulus package since our last appearance on February 12.
As indicated, my name is Paul Thompson. I'm the associate assistant deputy minister for the skills and employment branch at HRSDC.
Specifically, I've been asked to provide the committee with an update on three items: the progress on the stimulus package as it relates to employment insurance and skills training funding; wait times for the processing of EI claims, including month-by-month processing times from December 1, 2008, to April 30, 2009; as well as the additional $60 million in funding allocated for the timely processing of EI claims.
As Madam Vice-Chair indicated, I'm joined by colleagues who will be able to speak to various elements of the implementation of the economic action plan: Joanne Lamothe, assistant deputy minister for program operations, who will be able to speak to programs on work sharing, youth, and the aboriginal programs; Liliane Binette, assistant deputy minister for operations, on service delivery and processing of claims; and Mike Saucier, the acting chief financial officer.
When I last appeared before the Committee in February, I described the measures that make up the Canada Skills and Transition Strategy and how we plan to implement them. Today, I will give you an update on the implementation of these measures.
Over all, significant progress has been made to help workers who are losing their jobs as a result of the current recession or because of structural changes affecting particular Canadian industries. All the necessary policy and financial authorities have been obtained, and Canadians are benefiting from the changes to the Employment Insurance program, as well as increased investments in training and skills development.
Turning to the employment insurance measures, the government has made changes to EI to provide more benefits and easier access, preserve jobs, and support those hardest hit through training and skills upgrading so that they can find a new job.
Before discussing the impact of the employment insurance measures, I would like to remind the committee and update it on how the EI program is adjusted every month to respond to changes in regional unemployment rates.
As members may know, the EI system is divided into 58 distinct regions to recognize diverse labour market situations across the country. When unemployment goes up in a particular region, the number of hours required to qualify for EI decreases, and it therefore becomes easier to access EI. In addition, the duration of benefit increases. This reflects the current reality that in the hardest-hit regions it is harder to find and to keep jobs.
As a result of this flexibility, since October 2008 more than 85% of Canadian workers now have easier access to EI regular benefits, and for a longer period of time. Since October 2008, all regions in Ontario, B.C., and Alberta have seen the number of hours required to qualify reduce and the duration of benefits increase. In the hardest hit parts of Ontario, B.C., and Alberta, the number of insurable hours to qualify for EI has fallen by up to 175 hours, and the duration of benefits has increased by up to 14 weeks.
I will now turn to some of the enhancements to the employment insurance program.
The government is providing up to five extra weeks of EI benefits to support Canadians who lose their jobs. This new measure, with an estimated cost of $1.15 billion, came into effect on March 1, 2009. As of the end of May, more than 150,000 Canadians had received additional benefits worth approximately $196 million, and about 50% of these Canadians had exhausted their benefits prior to March 1.
The government is also making investments in the EI system to ensure that Canadians get timely and good-quality services. By March 31, almost 3.1 million claims had been processed, representing an increase of 17.8% over the previous fiscal year.
Human Resources and Skills Development Canada has received more than $60 million for the fiscal year 2009-10 to respond to the increasing volume in EI claims across the country and to implement the expansion and the extension of work sharing agreements, as well as the increased duration in EI benefits.
With these additional resources, the department has hired 900 more staff to process claims, hired 110 more call centre agents to answer questions, extended the hours of operation for EI call centres by two hours, increased Saturday service capacity in a number of centres, and updated the Service Canada website to make it more user friendly and to include information on all the new EI measures.
Since January 2009, Canadians have been receiving their first cheques within 24 days on average, even with the dramatic increase in EI claims. In the period from December 2008 to April 2009, the average time for Canadians to receive their benefit cheques ranged from 22 to 25 days.
Within the next three months, an additional 400 staff will be hired and trained to improve this efficiency even further. The department will continue to monitor intake of claims and our ability to respond and will adjust staffing levels as appropriate going forward.
Turning to another initiative, the career transition assistance initiative is now being launched in partnership with provinces and territories. This initiative is designed to help laid-off workers, particularly those with many years of experience, who need to change occupations or industry to find a new job. It will provide EI income support for up to two years for long-tenured workers with many years of job experience to develop new skills to find a new job. It will also give unemployed long-tenured workers earlier access to EI regular benefits if they use all or part of their separation package to pay for eligible training. We anticipate that over 40,000 long-tenured workers will benefit from these measures. We are on track for implementation, with letters being sent this month to more than 148,000 potential participants to make them aware of their eligibility.
The government has also frozen EI premium rates for 2010 at $1.73, the same rate as for 2009. This measure provides a projected combined $10.5 billion stimulus for the economy over two years.
Extended benefits are now available under the wage earner protection program to all eligible employees whose employer became bankrupt after January 26, 2009, to cover unpaid severance and termination pay up to a maximum of four weeks of maximum insurable earnings as defined in the Employment Insurance Act. As of May 23, in terms of implementation of this measure, 328 Canadians have benefited from this measure at a cost of just over $600,000.
Government efforts are also focused on protecting…
