The honourable member is quite right to make a distinction between the waiting period and administrative delays.
In fact, the infamous waiting period, a sort of void, will never be paid for, even if a claim was processed, settled and paid out retroactively. When it was designed in 1940, there was this concept, this rather punitive vision: the first two weeks were the responsibility of the recipient; it was that person's fault and they had to assume the responsibility. However, society has evolved. Earlier on, I was talking about the Quebec parental insurance plan and health and safety laws that have no waiting period. We will have to do away with this punitive aspect of the waiting period.
As for administrative delays, it seems normal to me that there would be people processing the applications somewhere. There has to be an administration. Someone has to verify the paperwork and ensure that everything is in order, but there is currently a level of disorganization in the unemployment offices that is quite disturbing.
Consider, for example, the board of referees, an administrative appeal body that normally hears a case within a four-week time frame. That time frame, at least in the greater Montreal area, is currently at three months. The processing of employment insurance files was the subject of some scandal, or at least of media coverage, in the spring throughout Quebec. I assume that the situation is similar in the other provinces. It takes two or three months, sometimes longer, just to find out if the application has been approved. Something is wrong with that picture.
And yet, this system has thousands of employees. It is bursting with money. It seems that, at some level, people are not doing a good job of managing or organizing things, that much is certain.