Thank you, Madam Chair.
Your approach, senators, makes nine recommendations, recommendations 7 through 15, respecting employment insurance. I want to ask a little bit about that and get your input on those recommendations.
The report notes that you “opted for the short-term expedience of sustaining these initiatives within EI”, or, in other words, these nine recommendations here. As we know, the funds spent under the EI program come from the pockets of each one of us, from the workers of Canada and from the employers. Like any other program expansion, we'd obviously have to find money to pay for any expansion, or for these recommendations in particular, I guess.
It looks to me like three of your recommendations would be revenue neutral, but six would cost, and there would be a fair bit of expense there. In looking at that whole area and those extensive recommendations, did you or the committee find that in any way there would be a possibility of reducing the overall cost to the EI account, or the potential of putting downward pressure on the EI account with these recommendations, all other things being equal?