Well, I think rehabilitation starts for someone when they first go into prison. They have the opportunity to upgrade their skills, their learning. That's all available to them. Like I said, there's some $400 million in support services that are provided across the country for people who come out of prison. You want to hope that they're all taking advantage of it.
In talking about the program itself and asking why we aren't fixing something else, I believe the minister and her department are always scrutinizing the act. That's what the department's officials do. They scrutinize the act to try to make it work even better and more efficiently for Canadians who may need to take advantage of it because of circumstances beyond their control. That's what insurance is all about.
And yes, they are entitled to it within the regulations and the way the act is written. I mean, we could talk about all the sides of the act, but that's not the issue.
The issue is very concise. Again, it's about someone who's convicted of a crime and goes to jail for a short period of time. Just because of that, they're receiving, under a provision in the act, the right to apply for an extension to the qualifying or benefit periods, a right that is not available to someone who has lived a law-abiding life, who doesn't commit a crime, who doesn't go to jail, who works hard, and who for some reason finds themselves in a position where they need to apply for EI. Because they haven't qualified for whatever circumstance of voluntary...they can't apply for the extension.
What I'm saying is that it isn't that side of the regulations that's at fault. It's the unfairness to law-abiding Canadians because of a preferential treatment to a convicted felon. That's what I'm saying.