Thank you to both witnesses for being here.
Today we're talking about the LMDAs. There are also all kinds of programs and supports at the federal and provincial levels for people who don't qualify for EI support and so on. There is a lot going on. But I'd like to focus more on LMDAs today, because that's really what we're here to do.
I'd like to get your views on how strongly national standards should be built into these programs versus what our friends in the provinces and territories often want, which is maximum flexibility in these programs so that they can kind of do what they think is....
This is a nationally funded program. I'm just curious to get each of your perspectives on this. How strong do you think national standards should be in the LMDA program versus allowing us to negotiate different agreements for different provinces with different standards and different mechanisms to adjust to provincial and regional differences? At the federal level, I think this is always a struggle for us. We want to work with our partners. We want these programs to work for people in communities across the country. But at the same time, we need accountability for federal dollars. We need to see and to be able to measure the success of these programs in a national context.
Maybe we can start with the CLC and then we can go to the institute. Perhaps you can give me your perspective on strong federal standards versus, let's say, much greater flexibility for the provinces under this program.