The one I'd like to be a fly on the wall for is when he has that birds and bees conversation with them. That would be great television.
When an apprentice is going through the process and has to go back to school, after they have had some time in the field and go back to school, there is a disconnect with the employer. What we've heard from past witnesses is that a lot of the time the slowdown in receiving EI benefits is one of the reasons people are falling out of these programs. It's an interruption in family cash flow.
In 2004 cheques were being issued 80% of the time in 21 days. That was the standard. They were hitting that standard 80% of the time. They've stretched the standard to 28 days, and they're only hitting that 30% of the time now. We're seeing some Canadians going five, six, seven weeks without income, and so they are saying, “I can't pursue this electrical apprenticeship. I'm driving a truck now. I have to do something to feed my family.”
We're looking at specifics. What can we actually do? There is the lower piece that some of you have talked about, but then there's that fulfilment and when you have that many people in apprenticeship and with the high rate of non-completion, there has to be some stuff within that. We've attracted them to the idea. They have gotten comfortable with the idea that they want to be an apprentice, but because of the mechanics here, they are falling out of the program and not completing their apprenticeships.
Does it make any sense that the federal government—and we're looking at what the federal government can do—develop a specific program, maybe in partnership especially with the bigger companies? The bigger companies, such as Toronto Hydro, would continue to pay the person while they go back to study, and then they do the business afterwards with the federal government to recoup that money out of the EI fund or whatever it might be, for some kind of consistency in revenue for that household.
First of all, do you see it as a problem? What do you suggest as a possible solution?