Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to both the witnesses.
I guess I have a bit of a preamble. I think it's important to not look at the LMDA as being the catch-all for all our issues around employment. I think we need to really try to focus a little bit, and I do worry about that.
I just went on to the Canada Benefits website. It's a fantastic website. If you go to it, you can see that there are opportunities through the youth employment strategy program, through targeted initiatives for older workers, through the LMA, through ASETS, and through some programs that the provinces run. I guess I just don't believe that the function of the LMDA is to be a catch-all.
I also think we need to remember the goals. People talk about this EI surplus and I think we have to remember that the goal is that this is balanced over seven years. We had a number of years where there was a significant deficit in the last while, so again, to talk about it as a surplus I think is a bit of a red herring because we know the goal is over seven years.
I'm going to focus in, first of all, on the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. I was on the Red Tape Reduction Commission. Hopefully that's going to go lower and lower because I think there was some nice work done there. I see on page 4 it's down a little bit, I hope.
As to the shortage of qualified labour, I want to dig into that because that's been a bit of a debate in the House. Is there a shortage; is there not a shortage? The minister regularly and often says there's not a general shortage, but we certainly have shortages in specific sectors and in specific regions. Could you talk a little bit more about that and how the LMDA, especially as it might relate to mobility, might be able to support...?