No. In fact when we made a similar presentation to the Senate committee on the same bill we said that while we're not excited about the changes in this bill, they are less harmful than some of the other proposals for changes to employment insurance that have been proposed.
We are very worried and have publicly stated that a 360-hour period for employment insurance across the country would potentially be devastating to many small firms that struggle to find workers, even in these economic times. We have to remember that there are still many businesses in many sectors of the economy that are hungry for workers but unable to find them. So we don't support that.
The idea would be extremely harmful to small firms across the country. When we come out of this recession it would seriously set us back, even if it were a temporary measure. Temporary measures have been found to be very difficult to get rid of, and our major concern with employment insurance is that these measures would stick around and further exacerbate the shortage of labour when we do come out of the recession.