I'm happy that Lynne talked about the consequences of poverty. Historically, governments seldom match the revenue side with the expenditure side. There is a cost to be associated with people and poverty. Health care costs rise, as we know. All kinds of studies have been done for many years. We know that the suicide rate among unemployed workers is 30 times that of the working population. We know there are increased hospital admissions, mental problems, and physical disabilities related to unemployment. So governments are going to pay one way or another, whether on the revenue side or the expenditure side. I think that it's a good investment in poverty reduction.
In 1990, when the legislation was passed to make EI self-financing, workers paid $3.07 per $100 of earnings and employers paid 1.4 times that. The EI premium rate now is about a third of that, and the federal government no longer contributes. This shows the diminished level of contribution to training and income support. More needs to be done, and we can see how much less is being done.