There are two aspects to your question. The first has to do with implementing the measures. Usually, new measures are meant for new clients, but in this case, the measure applies to existing clients.
That's a reach-back of nine months. The typical way would be to look forward to new clients; this actually looks back. It's a rather unusual way, in our experience with EI, to implement a change. In fact, the five-week measure introduced in the economic action plan was the first time we'd actually applied it to existing clients. So there's an aspect that's operational. The farther you look back, the more challenging it becomes from an implementational perspective. We have more clients who have long since stopped becoming clients. They have to be contacted to come into our office. They may be participating in other programs offered at the provincial level, including training measures, so the interactions with other programs becomes more complicated. With longer periods—as my colleague from Service Canada could explain—you begin to get people who are into a second claim in the same period. That introduces additional complexities. So there are various operational requirements that make it increasingly complex the farther back you go from the coming into force of the legislation.
The second aspect has to do with the labour market. The unemployment rate went up considerably between December and January; it is the highest rate in recent years. From December to January, it went from 6.3% to 7.8%.