Thank you very much.
I'll skip right to the next two recommendations.
First, we recommend a vastly strengthened labour market information system at both the wholesale and what I call the retail level.
Second, through the LMDAs the federal government distributes employer and employee EI funds to the provinces and territories for employment benefits and support, and that's what we're talking about today. Ottawa is the steward of these funds and has the right to insist on more accountability on behalf of EI contributors. This could and should start with much deeper and more meaningful reporting by provinces on both the input and the output of the LMDAs.
Further, governments should work together to develop uniform reporting standards so a national picture can be obtained.
Third and last, LMDA employment benefits and supports need to be better evaluated. For those who know about the evaluation, it is very weak. Good evaluation requires third-party objective review where it's possible, randomized controls, and rigorous statistical and economic analysis. We need to know what is working well and what is not, what makes financial sense and what does not, not as a way of attaching blame but as a way of improving our programs.
The federal government should be requiring high standards for evaluation and should be aggressively promoting best practices.
Let me stop there and let you get on with it.