Thank you, Madam Chair.
Madam Minister, there's no question that this is a direction that most Canadians appreciate and that we do as well. However, I just wanted to clarify some things with respect to this particular legislation.
The fact that the program is optional rather than mandatory means that the self-employed persons who are most likely to benefit from it--for example, self-employed persons who are planning to have children or have poor health--will most likely self-select to contribute to the scheme, as opposed to others who might be healthy and don't have family. In the case of employed persons, the program is mandatory for everyone and the costs of the program are spread among everyone whether they are likely to receive benefits or not. It's a wider spread. In this case, it's not, because it's self-identifying only if they need it.
Why is the program optional rather than mandatory? Do you not expect that there could be a disparate situation, with more people who need to receive actually applying while the rest don't, thus putting a heavier weight on the system? What proportion of the 2.6 million self-employed persons do you think would actually self-identify? This goes back to the actuarial...because since it's not mandatory, people who think they need it will probably be the ones most likely to apply, as opposed to those who don't think they do.