The company would pay the salary and get a bit of a break on the EI component for that employee in order to help train that person and get them into position. We already know small business invests so much in training as it is, and it's becoming difficult for them to do it. So this is a way to sort of encourage more training. It's actually based on an idea that was done in the late 1990s, called the new hires program, through the EI system. The new hires program encouraged businesses to create jobs by giving them what they called an EI holiday.
On October 20th, 2009. See this statement in context.