Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to thank the witnesses.
Some things, I think, are beneficial ideas, and some areas I'm not as sure are the right way forward. I do think it's important to point out that the EI fund is intended to balance over seven years. We have made a commitment to balancing it. As you may recall, a number of years in the last seven-year period were very difficult, so if we suggest that there is a surplus this year, I think we need to take that into account in terms of how this fund is going to balance. Certainly our government committed not to take it from the employers and employees, but to make sure that it had that balancing mechanism in place.
The next place I want to go I am struggling with a little. The LMDA is not to be the be-all and end-all for all skills training and employment situations. We just did a study on the ASEP program, and those are significant dollars going to our aboriginal communities in terms of some of their needs. We know we have the labour market agreements. We know we have the fund for people with disabilities. You talked about training and about the nurse who might want to do upgrades. My son is a nurse. He just did his critical care course, and his employer helped him. We heard about Colin who supported skills training. I would be a little bit reluctant to suggest that maybe the mom-and-pop operation that is really struggling just to make ends meet should sort of take over supporting some of those things that employers are already doing through increases to them.
We really need to focus on what the LMDA is, who it is there to help, and how we are going to move forward. I don't believe it is the catch-all for everything.
After we started this study, I went to the B.C. website and I read their last report, the one for 2013-14.
Mr. Meredith, have you looked at all the different provincial reports? Can you talk a little bit about the variation across the provinces? Are there some reports that we should all make sure we read, particularly, let's say, the last year's performance report from a province? Do you have any thoughts on that? Should we read them all, or are there one or two that...?